Scan Magazine

By Signe Hansen

As the world grows smaller and more and more businesses become global players, the need for law firms with an international scope grows the other way. Increasingly it is demanded that they safeguard any of their clients’ international transactions as well as their national ones. One of Norway’s leading law firms Wikborg Rein has chosen to embrace this development with a major extension of its London office.

The demand for more international services has, however, not come as a surprise to Wikborg Rein. The firm, which was founded as a one-man business in Oslo by Erling Wikborg in 1923, opened its first foreign office in New York in 1956. Today they have about 185 lawyers divided between Oslo, Bergen, London, Singapore, Shanghai, and Kobe and have more international experience and expertise than any Norwegian law firm with their combination of Norwegian, English, Greek, Singaporean, Chinese, and US qualified lawyers.

Tripling the legal team

The seven-man team in the London office, which mainly focuses on shipping, offshore, banking and finance, currently includes three Norwegian lawyers as well as a Singaporean lawyer. They provide services for large and small Norwegian corporations conducting business in the UK or other foreign jurisdictions, as well as UK businesses involved with Norwegian law.

Soon the legal team will be joined by three new English qualified partners. The extension is a huge step for the corporation, which will be the first Norwegian law firm to provide a full-scale English law service, including dispute resolution. This will, for instance, benefit the firm’s many clients in the shipping and offshore industry. “Many Norwegian ship and rig owners have ordered ships and rigs fromyards in Japan, Korea and Singapore. Generallymany of these contracts are subject to English law and when there are disputes, and that is quite often these days, we will be in a position not only to assist the clients in finding English lawyers to assist them in a court case or arbitration proceedings here in London, but also to undertake that task for them,” explains Partner Henrik Hagberg. He became part of the London team in August 2008.

As both new and current partners will recruit new associates, Hagberg predicts that the London department will almost triple its legal teamwithin a year or two. After official inclusion of the three new partners, it will therefore also be moving to larger and more modern offices in Cheapside, near its current location next to St Paul’s cathedral.

Working around the clock

But it is not just in London that Wikborg Rein is internationally minded. The firm has many global conglomerates in its portfolio and to provide themwith the best possible service, lawyers needs to work across boarders and jurisdictions. “We have worked very hard on the cooperation between our offices and it is now as seamless as possible. To a large extent we work in integrated teams in-between the countries where our offices are located,” says Hagberg, who himself has worked at both Wikborg’s Oslo and Kobe offices, before returning to London for the second time in his career. “For me the job is not that different. My portfolio in Norway was fairly international with largely the same businesses as here and the same goes for my time in Japan where I was from 2002 to 2005.”

The international alignment of offices and shared portfolios means that Wikborg is able to undertake huge assignments and work around the clock thanks to the time difference. But with this also comes an extensive network of legal expertise, explains Hagberg. “We have a huge network not only in the countries where we actually have offices but also the countries around them like Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia.”

Wikborg will announce the official inclusion of the three new partners shortly and we will be sure to follow up on that and the other exciting new projects of the firm.

• Wikborg was founded back in 1923 by Erling Wikborg with a focus on maritime law and marine insurance business

• From 1999 to 2002, Wikborg Rein expanded by fifty percent

• TodayWikborg Rein has about 185 lawyers, of whom 58 are partners

• Wikborg covers all areas of business law, with special focus on six business areas: shipping/offshore, banking/finance, corporate finance, natural resources, trade/industry/public procurement, and real estate.

Litigation and dispute resolution services are provided for all core business areas.