Sorainen

Real Estate & Construction, M&A and Private Equity

Senior Partner

Aku Sorainen founded the firm in 1995 and is the senior partner of the firm. Born and educated in Finland, he became excited about the Baltic States as soon as they regained independence in August 1991. Aku immediately decided to write his master’s thesis at the University of Lapland about the business laws of these three countries following renewal of their independence. The thesis attracted considerable attention in Finland and it was not long before large corporations began to call for his advice. He decided to move to Estonia in 1993 to practice law.

Building one team in four countries. Aku consider his main achievement the opportunity to build a fully integrated regional partnership from scratch. This has grown organically to 33 partners and over 200 lawyers with firm-wide quality management and business support services.

Balancing roles. While Aku spends much of his time today leading the firm’s strategic development, he continues to deepen his skills by advising corporations, mainly in the fields of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and real estate transactions.

Active in society. Aku was a member of the Supervisory Board of Tartu University from 2010 to 2015 and co-chairman of the Law Firm Management Committee at the International Bar Association in 2015 and 2016. He actively supports the social enterprise Noored Kooli (TeachFirst) and has been honorary consul of Malta in Estonia since 2003.

Knight’s Cross of Finland. I was honoured to receive the Knight’s Cross, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland from Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in 2015 for two decades of work in developing relations between Estonia and Finland and for supporting Finnish businesses in the Baltic-Belarusian region.

Personal passions. Aku has a special interest in history and law firm management, the latter of which he considers to be not only work, but a lifestyle. Running a family farm in his free time feeds Aku's natural interest to support firm's clients in the food, agriculture and forestry sectors.

Finnish, English, Estonian, German, Swedish

Finnish Bar Association Estonian Bar Association (first foreign citizen to be accepted) International Bar Association Latvian Bar Association (associate member) Lithuanian Bar Association (associate member)

Courses abroad on law firm management, M&A and International Business Law Harvard Business School, Executive Education, USA (Course on law firm management), 2008 Scils Finland in cooperation with the International University of Monaco (IUM) (Certificate of Business Administration), 2001 Riga Graduate School of Law under the Stockholm School of Economics, Latvia (Diploma in International Trade Law), 1999 University of Lapland, Finland (LLM), 1993