Peter Smits

Background

About Peter Smits

Peter Smits has been with ING since 1996. He specializes in securities and banking litigation. He is the founder (in 2002) and senior attorney-at-law of ING's in-house law firm (ING Advocaten) and represents multiple ING branches and departments before first instance and appeal courts as well as extrajudicial arbitrators for financial law (Klachteninstitituut voor de Financiële Dienstverlening, KiFiD). From 2020 until 2024 he was also admitted as Attorney before the Dutch Supreme Court. Peter is an expert in Dutch civil procedure and holds a doctor's degree in law since 1996 (the title of his thesis:'Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Dutch civil procedure'; second edition 2008). He was one of the authors of a handbook for Dutch civil litigators (Sdu Commentaar Burgerlijk Procesrecht) and was chronicler on the main principles of Dutch civil procedure in a leading periodical (TCR, Tijdschrift voor Civiele Rechtspleging). Below are cited his major publications; an extensive list of publications can be found in the appendix. In 2010 Peter raised funds from the ING Charity Fund for the 'Microjustice' project established by Tilburg University and HiiL (The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law) to enhance access to justice in Kenia. From 2013 until 2024 he was member of the Advisory Council of Tilburg Law School. Besides English, Peter is fluent in French (since 1991 he is married to a Parisienne) and German (in 1990 he obtained a one year's scholarship to study German law and work in a German law firm). As from September 2025 Peter is located for ING in Paris on a Short Term Assignment (STA) to work with ING's local legal staff.