Mr Allen was travelling with his wife and three sons when the plane crashed on 17th July. A British lawyer, the 44-year old had joined NautaDutilh 18 years ago. A statement on the firm’s home page said: ‘We were shocked to learn that our much-loved colleague John Allen, his wife Sandra and their sons Christopher, Julian and Ian were on board the Malaysia Airlines flight on route to Kuala Lumpur that crashed in the Ukraine on July 17. Our thoughts are with John’s family and his friends in and outside the office.'

IP practice

The website went on to say: 'John joined our firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2007. He was very important in building the intellectual property practice group, where his expertise and skills in patent litigation and technology- related disputes were highly praised by his clients and peers. John was one of the few Dutch lawyers featured in the Who's Who Legal (patent law) as well as in the Intellectual Asset Management Patent 1000: The World's Leading Patent Practitioners.He was a person with many talents, and in addition to his professional contribution to our firm he generously shared his musical and athletic abilities with us as well. All of us who had the privilege of working with John during his 18 years at NautaDutilh came to know him as a kind, down-to-earth and humorous man and many of us have also lost a friend. He will be dearly missed.’ Source: NautaDutilh