Deviating from the norm was exactly what Rachnilda, better known as Nilda, did with the formation of Burofocus. Burofocus consultancy bureau that facilitates legal and semi-legal activities with specialization in the areas of real estate, family, labour, corporate law and research.
"We deviated from the traditional law firm concept to be able to provide clients a better all round legal service," Nilda said. She explained that with the bureau she was able to lower the threshold for the community and broaden the services that are usually provided by a lawyer.
With Burofocus, Nilda organized seminars based on personal development and growth. The bureau also offered aptitude tests and spent a great deal of effort developing programs to promote preventative behavior. She advocates for mitigation and negotiation as an alternative to going to court.
Another interesting fact about her business is that through her consultancy, Nilda was able to network and build working relationships with professionals globally. This network allows Burofocus to access professionals in various countries and use their expertise to build a case or to assist in research.
The Burofocus initiative was initially not very popular among her colleagues. According to Nilda, she had faced heavy criticism from some colleagues and some had even challenged her plans. "People don't like change and I was doing something totally different," she recounted, knowing she had already gained the approval for her concept from the then Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Legal Professionals of the Netherlands Antilles.
She opened Burofocus on February 1, 1996, offering a completed package of consultancy and legal litigation. The consultancy, she added, is geared toward working with the small man, big corporations, as well as governments.
Before the lawyer achieved her doctorate in law, she was a full-fledged teacher, holding a principal's degree, a degree to teach the Dutch language and a degree in Biology. Her school career is quite interesting. She was able to attain her principal's degree at the age of twenty. This achievement was rather unique, as the pay scale for that degree started at age 22.
In 1982, her grandfather, Louis Arduin, better known as Fajtang, who owned a watch making and jewelry store on Front Street died. Nobody in the family wanted the task of moving to St. Maarten to operate the business, so she was asked to take up the challenge and she accepted.
I managed the store and worked at Milton Peters College teaching Dutch and Biology, while at the same time serviced an intimate group of clients as an aesthetician. Within a short while, however, I was longing for something more to do in my spare time, so I enrolled, when in 1983 the University of the Netherlands Antilles announced that they would be having a one time Bachelor's of Law course in St. Maarten. After completing the two year course, I was hooked on law," she declared.
She went on to obtain her Master's degree in 1988, followed by a Doctor-of-Law degree from the Vrije University in the Netherlands, where she defended her thesis on International Time Share in 1993.
In 1987 Nilda met the love of her life, former Councilman Edgar Lynch. They were both in the Netherlands, where she was studying and he was on a working assignment for the Education Department. She confessed to knowing Edgar from St. Maarten. However, in Holland they became friends. She added that in 1989 they became more than just friends and in 1991 they got married. "I was his birthday gift, we were married on his birthday," she disclosed.
As a politician's wife, Nilda has a packed schedule of social activities. She is a staunch women's rights advocate. She was the first president of the Business and Professional Women Association (BPW), youth advocate and the co-founder of the Ark Foundation.
Nilda is an unshaken advocate for consciousness among the African Caribbean Diaspora. She has also just started as the superintendent of Sunday School at the Belvedere Methodist Church. Spirituality is a major part of Nilda's life.
Her consultancy's mission statement is: "To render legal and semi-legal related services of the highest standards; with honesty and confidence to achieve for its clients that what is rightfully theirs, that what they are entitled to, or need to know or accomplish to fulfill their Godly mission in life."
Nilda was born to Surinamese parents, Irma Oostburg and Herman Arduin in
Curacao on December 19, 1953. She was the couple's second daughter. At that point,Nilda added that her bigger sister Hilli, an educator and psychologist, is an active part of the Burofocus network.
