The history of the office goes back to September 7, 1894. On that date Mr. Hendrik de Visser was registered as a lawyer at the Groningen court. He started his office at the Grote Spilsluizen (house number unknown).
On December 5, 1919, Marcus (Max) Koppius was sworn in. He had his office at 37 Ubbo Emmiussingel. Koppius was co-founder of the football club 'Voorwaarts', which later became GSAVV 'Forward', a sub-association of the Groningen Student Corps Vindicat Atque Polit.
At a time that can no longer be determined exactly, De Visser and Koppius started a practice in the office on Ubbo Emmiussingel.
In November 1929 Mr. Pieter Dorhout was sworn in. He joined De Visser and Koppius in the office.
In addition to practicing law, Dorhout was active in local politics and held various administrative positions. From 1970 to 1975, Pieter Dorhout was dean.
When De Visser ended his career as a lawyer in 1940, Koppius and Dorhout continued his practice as a partnership. The need to go into hiding made their work more difficult, but did not lead to insurmountable problems. Koppius retired from the legal profession in 1950. Dorhout continued the practice under his own name at number 8 Oude Ebbingestraat. In 1964, his son mr. Marten Dorhout joined him, after completing his internship at Dutilh in Rotterdam. In 1968, son mr. Johannes Dorhout also came to work for them, after his internship at De Vries Robbé & Kuijpers in Arnhem. In the meantime, the office had been moved to Oude Ebbingestraat 91.
From 1968 to 2005 - a period in which many RAIOs did their outdoor internships at Dorhout - the office gradually grew. Until further expansion at the former location in the city center was no longer possible.
On 1 June 2005, Dorhout cs Advocaten merged with Rollingswier Advocaten.
Rollingswier had been created three years earlier through a merger of two relatively young Groningen law firms Rollingswier & Breuker and Blokzijl & Lettinga Advocaten.
Located in a stately villa in the Zuiderpark, on the edge of the old city center of Groningen, Rollingswier Advocaten was increasingly involved in the commercial practice.
The office had seven lawyers. The objective was to grow within five years into an office with fifteen (commercially specialized) lawyers. But the size of the building did not allow for that expansion.
In 2005, both offices decided to work together, so that the set goals could be achieved. The joint name became Dorhout Advocaten and the address the current one.
On March 14, 2011, the former partnership was converted into a public limited company with retroactive effect from January 1, 2011; Dorhout Advocaten NV The current partners are mr. Kastelein , mr. Lettinga , mr. Breuker and mr. Koenders .
