Partner at NJP Grotstollen
The firm was established in 2000, as NJP, by three partners and, in 2009, changed its name to NJP Grotstollen following the arrival of Dirk Grotstollen. He brought 15 years’ experience as a lawyer and notary, as well as membership of TEN, The European Network of Law Firms.
Today, NJP Grotstollen has six senior and three junior partners who deal with a wide range of practice areas, especially transportation, insurance, labour, administrative, and company law. The firm also acts on behalf of clients in property-related and inheritance cases.
Born in Ruhrort, the port district which lies just north of the Ruhr, Dirk comes from a family that has long had links with the shipping industry. Duisburg is Europe’s and, by some measures, the world’s largest inland harbour, so, he recalls, it was only natural he gravitated to the sector after being admitted to the bar in 1995.
A historic university town, Duisburg became an important coal-mining and steel-making hub in the first half the last century, although the last mine closed in 2009 and the steel industry has declined in recent years. Now, it leverages its strategic location as the gateway to serve the European hinterland from the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp (ARA) on the Netherlands’ and Belgium’s North Sea coasts.
NJP Grotstollen provides specialised services for inland navigation, CMR freight, and all manner of transportation issues, whether in the air, rail, road, and on Europe’s waterways. He says that “our competence, good results and honest, open approach” allow the firm to offer “realistic advice that helps manage client expectations, even if that sometimes means saying ‘no’ to cases.”
Having come into contact with TEN at his previous firm, while working on cross-border cases involving the movement of goods from Duisburg to the ARA ports, Dirk joined the network in 2002. He feels that TEN is “good for clients, because we TEN lawyers know each other”, something that is particularly helpful with the debt collection and probate cases he has handled through the network in recent years.
Dirk insists that he “loves his job, both in terms of working with the law and with people.” When not busy with work commitments, he is an active member of the community in different organsations. Especially he is the chairman of the Ruhrort civic association for several years. Because of his networking competences he has good contacts with many people in business and politics.
A declared “anti-golfer”, Grotstollen is a keen tennis player, a sport he enjoys with both his wife and daughter. He also loves to get out into the countryside surrounding the city, which, he says, “is wonderfully green and full of lakes.”