Ivonne Leenhouwers stands up, in particular, for those alone against the world. She is one of the most prominent specialists in the Netherlands in the field of sexual offence cases. This means that she operates in an environment in which (wrongful) suspicions can have disastrous consequences for people’s lives. Anyone involved in a sexual offence case will more often than not see his or her world collapse before the case is even brought before the court. Modern means of communication and social media such as Facebook and Snapchat ensure a sliding scale, as a result of which it becomes increasingly unclear to many  people (especially young people) what is – and what is not – actually punishable.

Ivonne Leenhouwers also distinguishes herself in general criminal cases through her care, persistence and strong powers of persuasion.
She believes it is her duty to continuously assess the criminal law investigation and the application of the law with alertness and in a critical manner, inside as well as outside the court room.

Career

Ivonne Leenhouwers studied Dutch Law at the University of Utrecht, with a specialisation in criminal law and private law. In 1999 she started her career in criminal law at the law firm of Gresnigt & Van Kippersluis and in 2004 joined Veraart De Granada Advocaten. She was trained there by Chris Veraart – renowned for his pleadings on sexual offences and author of the book ‘False morals. False reporting of sex cases’. In 2017 Ivonne Leenhouwers joined Jebbink Soeteman Advocaten, where she discovered the same determination that characterises her own work. She focuses on sex cases and general criminal cases.

In addition, Ivonne Leenhouwers lectures on defences in criminal proceedings at the Educational Centre for the Administration of Justice (Dutch SSR) and regularly acts as a guest speaker. She is the author of the article ‘Changing (digital) sexual morality and sexual offences legislation, time for comprehensive review?’ and collaborated in the updating of the successful book by the lawyer Chris Veraart as referred to above.

Ivonne Leenhouwers is a member of the Dutch Association of Criminal Lawyers.