Caroline Mehlem

Caroline Mehlem

Senior Associate | Attorney at law

Employment & Employee Participation

Caroline has considerable experience in guiding medium-sized to large national and international enterprises in every aspect of employment law, from individual dismissals and legal scans to complex reorganisations and company acquisitions. She also assists many educational institutions ranging from school districts to universities. In addition to ‘regular’ employment law, she also has a special interest in cross-border employment and education law.

Caroline is a highly motivated attorney who takes a solution-oriented approach underpinned by her strong interpersonal and decisive qualities. Her commitment, expertise and clarity inspire trust among her clients and colleagues. Caroline is French in origin and also has German, Spanish and English roots, making her multilingual – something which is of great practical benefit.

Education

Caroline studied Dutch law at Leiden University, majoring in International Law.

Career

Caroline has worked at De Clercq as an attorney since 2003, with a broad focus on employment law. She puts her multilingual background and international interest to good use in advising numerous international clients. She specialises in Education Law and Employment Law from a European perspective, and has completed mediation training, which also serves her practice well. As well as being an attorney, Caroline is a board member with the Technolab Leiden Foundation.

Caroline’s daily practice

On an almost daily basis, Caroline deals with matters such as individual dismissals, reorganisations, working remotely from abroad, expatriates, unacceptable behaviour and the investigation of this, and disability in the workplace. She also provides advice to companies at the policy level. Caroline acts as in-house counsel for a variety of companies, and values the opportunity to get to know her clients well. This often leads to fruitful collaborations that last for many years. The same applies to the educational institutions with which Caroline has long-term involvements with respect to employment law matters.

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The latest developments

Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

HR in Healthcare – 1. Recruitment Process and the Duty of Due Diligence

10 September 2025

In the Netherlands, nearly 1.7 million people work in healthcare. And yet, there is still a significant staff shortage. These shortages present new challenges for executives and HR professionals. In practice, we see this sometimes leading to the recruitment of healthcare employees who ultimately turn out not to be well-suited for the sector. In this blog series, we will address a variety of employment law issues that may arise, from recruitment through to the termination of employment.

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Accrual of Vacation During Long-Term Illness: What Employers Need to Know

9 September 2025

Does an employee continue to accrue vacation even after two years of illness? The answer is yes, and this has important implications for employers.

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Employee Participation in Healthcare – From Formal Obligation to Effective Dialogue!

4 September 2025

Recently, the Innovation and Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Governance Committee for Healthcare published the report “Participation and Co-Determination in Healthcare: Towards Innovative Forms of (Co-)Decision-Making?''  The report makes clear that within the healthcare sector there is a need for more flexible, tailor-made, and integrated approaches to organizing participation and co-determination. Based on this report, Renate Vink-Dijkstra, together with Mirella Minkman, Michiel van Berckel Smit, and Daniel Waarsenburg, authored an article for the journal Goed Bestuur en Toezicht (Good Governance and Supervision). The central question addressed is how to ensure that participation is not merely a statutory obligation, but also a source of improved decision-making and genuine engagement.

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