Ivo van Heist has been a lawyer since 1983, and since 1991 lawyer and partner of CMS Derks Star Busmann. He is a member of the Real Estate & Government practice group, specializing in compulsory purchase and planning blight, property development, spatial planning and government liability.

He is also chairman of various committees dealing with planning blight and compensation for loss resulting from administrative acts, and is frequently appointed as court expert in matters such as compulsory purchase and other matters to do with property and (government) liability.

In addition, Ivo is member of the Expropriation Lawyers Association, the Construction Law Association and the Construction Lawyers Association. He regularly gives lectures and publishes on all these areas of law and is a teacher at Geoplan and annotator of the journal Bouwrecht.

Ivo van Heijst's clients are in government as well as the construction and property sectors, including in particular government bodies, building companies, property developers, engineering firms, housing asosciations and country estate owners. He is in addition commissioner at a large house corporation (Portaal).