In 2026, the legal playing field will change fast: we will see new privacy and energy rules as well as changes in the legal profession and the collaboration with GC. Michiel van Straaten interviewed Quirine Tjeenk Willink of Kennedy Van der Laan on important developments for GC.
1. What developments do you expect to see in 2026 in your specialities of energy, telecom and administrative law enforcement that large companies must reckon with already?
In 2026 the Energy Act will take effect, bringing new opportunities and obligations to the sector. To companies outside the energy sector, grid congestion will remain a big challenge in 2026 as a result of the growth of renewable energy and electrification. The (relatively) new options offered by the legislator and the ACM, such as energy-sharing, dynamic energy contracts and flexibility services (e.g. battery storage) will allow companies to set up business and obtain electrification targets even in congestion areas. What is more, they can do so in an eco-friendly and cost-conscious way. GC would do well to be aware of potential obstacles that grid congestion may involve for business operations and greening strategy. But most importantly, they should keep an eye on the solutions at hand, which have already been proven to be effective. In the fields of telecom and administrative law enforcement, in 2026 the focus areas of cyber security, digital resilience and (online) consumer protection will be top of the list for the supervisory authorities RDI and ACM. Naturally, cyber compliance is already high on the GC’s agenda and this will not change with the introduction of new legislation in 2026. Besides, in 2025 we witnessed a trend in supervisory practice of supervisors engaging in market-wide education on topics in focus areas, followed by law enforcement. An example is the crusade that the ACM undertook in 2025 against unlawful telemarketing and door-2-door sales. I expect that this trend will persevere in 2026 and will lead to intensified enforcement against companies that target consumers.
2. If we look at your role within the firm and as a board member, which changes in the professional legal profession do you think will have the greatest impact on General Counsel?
Obviously, the influence of AI on the professional legal profession will in my opinion have the greatest impact on GC. However, my expectations for the short term are somewhat dampened by previous experiences with hypes, such as Big Data in the early tens. In 2010, we thought that our smart fridges would soon start ordering by themselves if the milk ran out, and also that legal services could become marginalised in no time, because decision-making on legal topics would become a fully automated process in companies. 15 years onwards, there is a lot that is smarter, but I still do my own shopping and my work as an attorney has not yet materially changed either. Having said that, as a board member I realise that AI is not a hype, but an interesting tool that will indeed change our work and money-making model drastically. I expect that the arrival of AI will eventually make the attorney's role drift away from an executing role; in the long run, legal counsel will be able to perform a thorough case law search in a few seconds with AI, audit large quantities of data in a due diligence, and filter relevant information on specialist legal topics. For these tasks, attorneys (or large teams of attorneys) might then hardly have any added value anymore. This is an impressive development from which GC can save enormously. At the same time, AI cannot simply replace other, more strategic, checking, personal, ethical and procedural aspects of our work, at least not any time soon. We will therefore remain complementary to legal counsel for the time being, but in other elements of our work. To me, the arrival of AI is mostly a good chance to think about a sustainable rearrangement of our services, together with our clients. It is already making the collaboration with GC more multifaceted now.
3. You worked both at big law firms and at Alliander as a GC. How do you think law firms and GC can work together and learn from each other even better, and what does your firm do to align with the challenges of a GC?
I think this can be done by creating a better understanding of each other’s challenges and priorities. In fact, this comes down to showing interest (in person) and to both parties taking the time to build an informal relationship. GC operate as strategic business partners and expect their attorneys to give advice that is not only legally correct, but also practical in its application and in line with the corporate strategy. To achieve this, attorneys can learn by exploring the sector, but they can also learn from the GC; by understanding what specific KPIs are, what the current priorities and challenges of the organisation are, and especially by gaining insight in the organisation's risk management. This may look like stating the obvious, but in my experience practice often proves otherwise. As a GC, I found that attorneys would not probe into the reason behind a question, or would always be very hasty in personal contact. As an attorney, on the other hand, I do experience that GC mostly tend to have only indirect contact with attorneys. I think this does not necessarily result in the best of collaboration. At Kennedy Van der Laan, we consider it very important that our attorneys get and take the time to become well acquainted with our clients. We have therefore made account management a strategic spearhead throughout all layers of our firm. This way, we try to make relationship investment an integral part of the working method of all our attorneys. We are convinced that such an investment of time and attention holds the key to a successful collaboration. However, this investment works both ways; if the attorney has little or no contact with a GC and is only asked to advise on stand-alone questions, creating a real added value is rather complicated. The more you share with each other about what is going on, and the more you work together on various topics, the better an attorney can grow into the sparring partner they want to be for the GC.