Alumnus Jan Joosten: ‘New Amsterdam seemed more exciting than old Amsterdam’
Jan Joosten studied civil and tax law in Leiden from 1985. After exchanges and an internship, he became infatuated with the United States. He is now a partner and co-founder of a new law firm in New York: Pierson Ferdinand.
During your studies, you went on exchange a number of times, even though it was not very common back then. Why did that seem so interesting to you?
In fact, students were even discouraged to go on exchange. I was actually interested in an exchange even before I came to Leiden, because I had already spent a year in high school in the United States after completing Dutch high school. When I finished my first year in Leiden, I was still missing it. My study advisor told me at the time that there was no point in studying abroad, since I was studying civil and tax law, and not international law.
A few years later, the first exchange programmes came up. There were some advertisements in the Mare, which I responded to. I managed to get a place at the Institut d'études politiques in Paris through civil law, and in tax law I got a place at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In the end, I was able to combine both opportunities.
Later, you got the chance to do a masters at Harvard. Did you notice many differences from studying in the Netherlands?
I got the chance to study at Harvard through the Houthoff-Harvard scholarship. I think I was only eligible for that because I had done previous exchanges in Paris and Gainesville. Those were very important stepping stones for me to eventually get to Harvard. That is why I always advise students to go abroad while you are studying.
Studying abroad is very different. In the Netherlands, of course, you have the infamous culture where the aim is ‘just’ to pass, which I was also a victim of and participated in. With all four of my exchanges, I noticed that the level of ambition was a lot higher than I was used to in the Netherlands. At Harvard, that was definitely the case. It is interesting to see that when you surround yourself with people who excel, you start doing the same yourself.
After your studies, you worked at Houthoff in Amsterdam for three years. However, you chose to work in New York again. Did the US continue to gnaw at you?
The deal with the Houthoff-Harvard scholarship was that I would work at Houthoff for three years. I did just that. Although those three years were an incredibly instructive and useful experience, I still wanted to return to the US. New Amsterdam seemed more exciting than old Amsterdam.
What is your fondest memory from your student days?
I had a very nice time in Leiden. On top of my studies, I was a member of Minerva, where I had a great time. I really liked the combination of the village feel of Leiden, where everyone knows each other, and the variety of studying abroad. Student life in Leiden is very nice, but very inward-looking. I also enjoyed looking beyond that and discovering what there was to see and do outside Leiden.
This year, you became partner at a firm you founded yourself, Pierson Ferdinand. Why did you choose that?
For years, my standard working day was from 10 am to 10 pm or even later. Meanwhile, I have small children and noticed that I never saw them during the week. At best, I managed to get home just before eight so I could still put them to bed. When Covid came along, suddenly everyone was forced to work from home and that proved easy. That had so many advantages that I joined a fully remote office even during the corona pandemic. With a large group of lawyers, we split from this other company early this year and Pierson Ferdinand came into being.
Pierson Ferdinand is a law firm without a physical office; everything is arranged from home. This fantastic, disruptive concept eliminates high office costs, allowing clients to benefit from significantly lower fees. Our partners have at least a decade of experience at a large firm, so clients are assured of expertise and competitive rates. And I have dinner at home every evening with my wife and our children.
The Netherland-America Foundation (NAF), in which you are involved, offers a number of scholarships offered to Leiden students. Can you tell a bit more about that?
The NAF is a foundation that has existed for more than 100 years with the aim of improving ties between the Netherlands and America. One of the things we focus on is educational exchange. Studying in the United States is an expensive business. By providing scholarships, we hope to also give less wealthy students the chance to experience this unique opportunity. We are running a pilot this year with the Faculty of Law in Leiden to make the exchange with US law schools as widely accessible as possible.
Finally, what is your guilty pleasure?
Several years ago, I became a US citizen and thus automatically lost my Dutch nationality. I am now in the totally bizarre situation of speaking fluent Dutch, having a Dutch wife and children, but no longer being a Dutchman myself. Consequently, I have become politically active by co-founding the Dutch Nationals outside the Netherlands Foundation. We campaign to improve the position of the more than one million Dutch nationals abroad. We even managed to get a constitutional amendment to give Dutch nationals abroad the right to vote in elections to the Senate. That amuses me to no end.
Text: Wouter Geerts
Photo at top: Eleonora Digirolamo via Unsplash