About us
Who we are
European Justice Forum (“EJF”) is a non-profit organisation formed in 2005 to promote balanced, transparent and efficient access to civil justice for consumers and enterprises in Europe without incurring the damage that would arise from the adoption of class actions.
Through its membership and its office in Brussels, EJF engages in an open dialogue with opinion leaders in EU Institutions, national Governments and other relevant stakeholders. EJF develops position papers and other outreach materials, organizes expert debates and participates in factual events.
Functions & board tasks
The core committee responsible for the development of EJF is the Board. The board appoints the Chairman as well as the Executive Director. Important decisions related to EJF as a non-for-profit organization are confirmed or approved by the General Meeting to which all members are invited. A Secretariat is supporting the day-to-day activities. Details of EJF’s Corporate Governance are laid out in its Statutes.
The Board calls/meetings as well as the General Meeting are chaired by the Chairman of EJF. The Chairman is part of the board and supervising EJF’s activities.
The Executive Director is responsible for the general management of EJF and responsible for the operational lead of EJF’s secretariat. He is the core contact for political, regulatory & academic outreach and an important interface to members as well as for driving the strategic development of the association. He is also part of the Board.
The secretariat is responsible for tasks related to regulatory monitoring, communications, outreach, event support and operational issues.
Presentation of board members and management
Moya Stevenson is currently Global Senior Claims Counsel within Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. Her career in private practice, at a broker and now at a re/insurer has brought her in contact with various forms of dispute resolution worldwide, including litigation, arbitration and mediation. Prior to joining the Swiss Re Group in Zürich in 2004, Moya had spent nearly ten years working as a solicitor in London in private practice and a further three years as an in-house counsel at a Lloyds Broking house. She has focused on the insurance and reinsurance industry almost all of her working life.
"Considering and learning from different legal regimes as well as good practice, should enable consumers and business alike to build that fair and effective civil justice system that we all need and deserve. EJF is committed to finding that balance, through research and dialogue."
Moya is also a member of the Management Committee of ARIAS (UK) – the AIDA Insurance and Reinsurance Arbitration Society – and regularly travels to their committee meetings and events. Moya studied law with German law at King's College London and at the Universität Passau. In her leisure time, Moya likes to spend time with her son and husband, particularly in the Swiss Alps.
Ekkart Kaske has been the Executive Director of the European Justice Forum since mid-2017. In this position, he is responsible for the operational and strategic development of the association. He focuses on topics such as collective redress, efficiency and effectiveness of dispute resolution, better regulation, digitalization, as well as ethical and open culture.
During more than 12 years, Ekkart worked for global players (Allianz SE, Zurich Insurance Group) in Government Affairs and Public Policy activities. His tasks, among others, covered the set-up of the Representative Office in Berlin for Allianz and heading the Government & Industry Affairs department at Zurich Insurance Group, in Germany, with a co-lead period of EU activities. Building on his experience in strategic communications and on regulatory and reputational risk management, Ekkart then founded a consultancy specialized in corporate diplomacy and organisational development in Berlin.
Earlier in his career, he worked for nearly 10 years in the Operations area of financial services companies - including four in leading positions in China. He also gained further experience in Business Development at a Telematics start-up in Trieste, Italy. Ekkart studied Business Economics in Munich, Glasgow (UK) and Bayreuth. During his Executive MBA at Kellogg School of Management (Chicago/Evanston) in cooperation with WHU (Vallendar), he focused on Political Risk Management and Government Relations.
Being a native German with also a French nationality, Ekkart is fluent in German, French and English.
"We need to look at the whole process and start with capturing disputes and their developments at earliest possible stage to move from insights to foresight and prevention via feedback loops."
Liesbeth Timmermans is Executive Director for Legal Affairs at Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council. She leads a team of legal experts who provide advice and support to Cefic and its members on various legal policy areas including environment, chemicals and sustainable finance. She also represents Cefic in external relations with EU institutions, national authorities, and other stakeholders.
“To achieve delivery of fair civil justice, rules on procedure and evidence must be balanced and litigation finance should be regulated. Whilst access to justice is important, legal safeguards are needed to avoid that claims are being initiated and captured for the private gain of financial stakeholders.”
Liesbeth has over 10 years of experience as trade federation lawyer. Prior to that, she worked as a senior associate at a law firm specializing in EU and Belgian food and consumer law. Liesbeth holds a degree from Sciences Po Aix and a Masters of Laws from the University of Rennes. She is a Belgian and French citizen, and speaks English, French, Spanish and Dutch.
Simon Neill has been a member of the Johnson & Johnson Law Department since 2001, and is currently Senior Legal Director responsible for external legal advocacy and legal public affairs in Europe. For the past 20 twenty years and before joining the board of EJF in 2023, Simon provided legal support to many of the J&J medical devices and MedTech businesses in EMEA. Prior to joining J&J, Simon was outside counsel at a major international law firm for seven years. Simon studied law and French law at Birmingham and Limoges and he obtained a masters degree in business management from the Solvay business school in 2013. Simon has lived in Belgium for over 30 years.
In his spare time Simon enjoys marathon running, bike tours around Italy and travelling, especially to the Dordogne and Gironde areas of south-west France… and tasting the wine there!
Vitor Castro is a senior counsel in the Litigation & Investigations team at Philip Morris International.
He joined the company after almost twenty years of practice as a lawyer in top litigation firms in Brazil and in the United Kingdom, working most of this time with highly regulated industries, such as FMCG, automotive, energy and pharmaceutical. He holds as Master Degree in Contractual Law issued by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and he completed his LL.M at King’s College London.
Vitor is also an enthusiastic of DEI initiatives and he has contributed for the implementation of policies to suppress the gap of underrepresented groups in the Legal sector. He believes that including people with different backgrounds is pivotal for the development of a fairer society, to reduce inequalities and to promote peace.
Based on his vast experience litigating in different jurisdictions, Vitor believes that the indiscriminate expansion of the role of litigation funders will lead to a litigation culture that does not benefit those who need financial support to secure their rights.
“Litigation funding can play a relevant role. However, some litigation funders use court disputes to catapult their profits. Given that the court system is partly funded by tax payers, it seems unfair and contrary to the role of courts to be used as tool for wealthy individuals to make more money. Access to justice in a responsible fashion ensures that resources are used efficiently for those who need assistance to grant their rights.”
Although passionate about Law, Vitor his interests are not limited to this area. As a Brazilian national, Vitor misses a bit of sunshine living in the UK. Therefore, he is usually keen in travelling and exploring different cultures. Watch around if you are at an airport and you might be able to spot him!
Andrew Mills is the Legal Director for the UK and Ireland business of Experian, the global data business listed on the London stock exchange. He has been working for Experian since 2007.
Although very definitely a lawyer (he is admitted as a lawyer in both England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland and is also a non-practising notary public), Andrew began is career in the world of electronic engineering with Marconi and often brings a different perspective. He remains a member of the UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology.
His in-house legal team provides support to Experian on a wide range of matters including working closely with colleagues in the compliance team on regulatory matters and contracting with clients through to handling litigation and leading on global brand protection for the group. In keeping with his background, Andrew is driving transformation in the legal function with a focus on using data and agile methodologies.
Before Experian, Andrew was a partner in the English law firm Freeths LLP, where he led the Intellectual Property & Information Technology team.
Outside work, he still cannot believe that he is old enough to have young grandchildren and he tries to remind himself that he is still young by enjoying outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, cycling and (not as often as he would like) scuba diving as well as live music.
“We believe that the best way of handling a dispute is by avoiding it in the first place. To do that, we need to listen to clients and customers and use feedback to keep improving. We also must give people an effective and accessible way to complain and properly deal with those complaints; not only is this the best way of avoiding an escalation of a problem but this is also an important part of the feedback process.”
Herbert Woopen, Dr. iur. and Docteur en droit, is admitted to the bar in Cologne and doctor of law of civil procedure both in Germany and France. Starting in 2009 he has been contributing to research in particular as an Affiliate of the Swiss Re Programme for Civil Justice Systems in the EU at the Centre for Socio-legal Studies of the University of Oxford.
As a research assistant at the university of Cologne for 7 years, operational banker for 15 years and Representative of the Insurer Allianz in Brussels for 9 years, he has developed comprehensive expertise in banking and insurance. He has remained operationally active in the financial sector as a Board Member of a specialized German insurer.
“The law is not an asset class, just as breaking it shall never be accepted as a business model.”
With full professional proficiency in English, French, Italian and with his native German, he has been building and managing relations with EU institutions, associations and industry representatives over many years, written various articles and contributed to Commission consultations covering EJF topics:
- "Collective Redress – Opportunities of the Directive’s Transposition, The European Representative Action on its Way into German Law" in: Juristenzeitung (JZ) 12/2021, p. 601-611
- "Collective Redress and Periods of Limitation" in: Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht (ZIP) 23/2021, p. 1205-1207
- “Legal Tech for Justice, contribution to the Commission’s Consultation ‘Consumer policy - the EU’s new 'consumer agenda‘ ” (download here).
Herbert became EJF’s Director of Legal Policy with effect from 1st January 2021.
Our members and legal network
Major Corporate and Board Members
Experian Limited
Johnson & Johnson
Philip Morris Products S.A.
Swiss Reinsurance Company Limited
The European Chemical Industry Council (cefic)
Corporate Members
Bayer AG
Chubb European Group SE
Japan Tobacco International
Medtronic, plc
Procter & Gamble Corp.
Sanofi SA
Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.
Zurich Insurance Group
Professional Members
CMS EEIG
European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries
and Associations (EFPIA)
MedTech Europe
Kennedys Law
The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, Inc.
EJF Legal Network
Australia | Clayton Utz |
---|---|
Austria | Cerha Hempel |
Baltics | Roschier Raidla & Partners |
Baltics | Sorainen |
Belgium | CMS De Backer |
Belgium | Jones Day |
Denmark | Gorrissen Federspiel Kierkegaard |
Finland | Hammarström Pukakka Partners |
France | August Debouzy |
France | Kennedys Law |
Germany | CMS Hasche Sigle |
Greece | Bahas Grammatidis & Partners |
Hungary | Noer Stiefenhoffer Lutz |
Ireland | Kennedys Law |
Ireland | Matheson Ormsby Prentice |
Italy | Gianni, Origoni, Grippo & Partners |
Italy | LMS Legal LLP |
Netherlands | Houthoff |
Netherlands | Stibbe |
Poland | CMS Cameron McKenna LLP |
Poland | Greenberg Traurig |
Portugal | Gómez-Acebo & Pomb |
Portugal | PLMJ |
Spain | Linklaters LLP |
Spain | Uria & Menendez |
Sweden | Hammarskiöld & Co |
Switzerland | CMS von Erlach Henrici |
Switzerland | Bär & Karrer |
UK | Shook Hardy & Bacon |
UK | CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP |
UK | Kennedys Law |