Tessa de Mönnink

A renowned expert on distribution, franchise and agency agreements, Tessa de Mönnink has over twenty years’ experience in commercial contract law. She provides strategic advice to numerous well-known clients – many of them drawn from the retail, fashion, FMCG, food and drink, beauty and healthcare sectors, but including others from fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and industrial manufacturing – on setting up and unwinding international and domestic distribution networks. Tessa also regularly advises on licensing, collaboration agreements and related commercial contracts.

Tessa worked for more than 11 years at global law firm Allen & Overy, after which she founded her own law firm. Per 1 January 2026 she joined Leeway as a partner. Having graduated with a master’s from the University of Amsterdam, she studied at New York University School of Law in 1998. Tessa is the chairwoman, and a co-founder, of the Dutch Association for Distribution, Franchise and Agency Law (Vereniging DFA), as well as being the Dutch Expert in Franchise Law for the International Distribution Institute (IDI). She is an active member of the Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) where she participates in several committees.