Henri Kaikkonen is a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office and Head of our Finnish Intellectual Property Group. His focus areas are contentious IP matters, brand protection and commercialization of digital assets. Henri has extensive experience in contentious IP and Tech matters. Having represented clients in all kinds of IPR infringement and invalidation actions, preliminary injunctions and IP related damages claims, he focuses on contentious trademark, patent and unfair business practices disputes. His litigation expertise also covers trade secrets, copyrights, database rights, marketing, consumer protection, technology transfers and distressed IT projects. On the non-contentious side, Henri regularly advises in local, EU and international brand protection, oppositions and office actions, as well as in the creation and development of IP strategies. Much of his work is also about ensuring marketing campaigns and product launches are done lawfully.
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Jaakko Hietala is a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office. He is also the Head of the Finnish Real Estate Group as well as the Head of the Nordic Real Estate and Infrastructure Group. He is actively involved in client work with a strategic, pragmatic and business oriented approach. Jaakko specializes in corporate, M&A, real estate and infrastructure matters. He also has considerable experience in sports and entertainment law, where his clients include Finland's leading organisers of concerts and motorsports events. The business environment for his clients is increasingly complex and the clients appreciate his long experience in a wide array of matters - his approach is strategic but always also pragmatic. Jaakko is business oriented and holds various positions of trust, which provides him with insight into the strategic thinking behind the key areas of his expertise and the latest trends in the business environment of his clients. You will find Jaakko listed in international directories including Chambers and Partners and Best Lawyers.
Jori Taipale is a highly reputed lawyer within corporate mergers and acquisitions, private equity, banking and financial services, and competition and EU law, with over 25 years' experience. Today, Jori is the Head of Bird & Bird's Nordic region, and a member of our International Corporate and M&A, Banking & Finance and Competition & EU Law Groups.
As a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office and Head of our Competition & EU Law group in Finland, Katia Duncker specialises in complex competition and corporate matters. Over the years, Katia has worked on a number of cutting-edge competition law and public procurement cases for prestigious clients, both nationally and internationally. She also has extensive experience in advising on commercial and corporate M&A transactions, and in litigation proceedings relating to competition law and public procurement matters.
As a senior counsel and Head of Bird & Bird's Banking and Finance Group in Helsinki, Finland, Kristiina Lehvilä specialises in banking and finance transactions, banking and finance regulation, payments, securities market issues and corporate law. She advises leading Finnish and international clients acting as lender or borrower in domestic and cross-border financial transactions. Her expertise covers a wide range of financing transactions including acquisition financing, real estate financing, asset based financing, distressed financing, security structuring and intercreditor agreements as well as securities market transactions. Kristiina also advises clients on a wide range of regulatory questions relating to domestic and EU banking, securities markets and payments regulation. Additionally, she advises on general corporate law matters. Her clients come from a variety of sectors including banks, investment banks, private equity firms, funds and companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.
Laura Huomo is a partner in our Real Estate & Infrastructure group in Helsinki, heading our Energy practice. In addition, she works with our Corporate and M&A Group with equity and debt related transactions. Laura has 20 years of experience working for both Nordic and international law firms. She works with energy companies, municipalities, municipality owned companies and governments to navigate successful solutions within the energy transition. She assists her clients with regulatory issues, project structures, legal risk matrixes and energy related M&A activity. Further, Laura advises companies with their initial public offerings, share issues and rights offerings as well as debt issues. To her great delight, energy companies are also looking into tapping into the capital markets as part of their strategic planning, and in those transactions, she can combine her two strongest areas, energy and capital markets expertise to the benefit of her clients.
Maisa Nikkola is a partner in our Helsinki office, where she is Head of our Nordic and Finnish Employment practice groups as well as our Finnish Employee Incentives & Benefits group. She advises our local and international clients on complex employment issues. Focusing on all aspects of employment relations, Maisa advises clients on a broad range of employment and HR matters on a daily basis including transactions, contractual issues, the negotiation and termination of contracts, collective and trade union matters, co-operation procedures, restructuring and discrimination. In addition to employment law, Maisa specialises in outsourcing, trade secret issues and privacy and data protection. She has experience in complex litigation matters. Her team is regularly working on a broad range of cross-border projects and they have an excellent network with colleagues located all over the world at our Bird & Bird offices. They have longstanding experience in taking an innovative and strategic approach to their work. Her team is often thanked for being an everyday strategic partner for their clients.
As a senior associate at Bird & Bird in Helsinki, Matti Kuokkanen advises our domestic and international clients on matters relating to corporate law and corporate transactions. Matti is a member of Bird & Bird’s Corporate and M&A group. Matti is a member of our international Corporate and M&A group. He regularly advises our domestic and international clients on corporate transactions and day-to-day corporate matters. Matti is frequently involved in assignments relating to financing, regulatory advisory of financial institutions and capital markets.
Mika Puurunen is a partner in Bird & Bird's Corporate and M&A Group in Helsinki, where he advises his domestic and international clients on assignments related to capital markets, M&A and corporate law. He also advises his clients on regulatory matters concerning investment funds, investment firms and credit institutions.
Mikko Rajala is a partner in Bird & Bird's Dispute Resolution group in Helsinki. He specialises in commercial dispute resolution, as well as real estate-related matters. Mikko acts as a legal adviser to clients in dispute resolution and pre-dispute management matters in various fields of law and sectors including real estate, leasing, construction, intellectual property, securities, finance and damages. In particular, he specialises in construction and lease matters as well as in construction, IT and other project delivery-related disputes. In addition, he acts as an arbitrator in institutional and ad-hoc arbitrations. Mikko also advises his clients in non-contentious commercial agreements and arrangements. He has over 15 years of experience in leases of business premises, including retail, office, hotel as well as industrial space. His team provides daily support to their clients in agreements, development projects and insolvency issues relating to construction and lease of business premises.
As a Counsel in Bird& Bird's Helsinki-based Intellectual Property group, Mikko Nurmisto specialises in advising clients on a broad range of IP issues. The IP Group handles both contentious and non-contentious IP matters. In particular, Mikko has specialised in copyright, trademark and marketing law issues. Since joining Bird & Bird in 2013, he has also gained experience in drafting technology and other IP related agreements and assisting in litigation. He has also conducted a number of IP due diligences and assisted in regulatory matters as well as giving lectures and training for clients and IP professionals.
Riku Rauhanen is a Senior Associate in our Commercial and Privacy & Data Protection groups in Helsinki, where he works with our local and international clients advising them on data protection, other data regulation, and commercial contracts. Riku has extensive experience in providing legal advice on various data protection issues. His work covers all aspects of privacy and data protection law, including negotiating data processing agreements, carrying out data protection impact assessments and implementing multijurisdictional data protection projects. He has advised a wide variety of clients from public bodies to multinational technology companies on data protection law. In addition to privacy and data protection, Riku also specialises in other data regulation. His particular area of interest is the EU's artificial intelligence regulation. Riku is part of Bird & Bird's global network of AI experts. In addition to data-related councelling, Riku also provides guidance on contract law issues. He has extensive experience of drafting and negotiating different types of contracts as well as supporting clients with interpreting contracts and resolving contract-related conflicts.
As a senior counsel in Bird & Bird's international Dispute Resolution group in Helsinki, Risto Sipilä has a wealth of experience advising on dispute resolution matters as well as on construction and real estate law issues. Advising his clients on dispute resolution in various fields of law and across all business sectors, Risto specialises in matters, disputes and pre-dispute management. He also acts on behalf of our clients in energy & utilities, and as an arbitrator. His main area of expertise is construction and real estate law. Typically Risto represents construction parties and related projects in arbitration and litigation proceedings. He has also represented clients in court proceedings on other areas of business law, such as delivery agreements and assets deals.
Sakari Halonen is a partner and co-head of Bird & Bird's Nordic Tech & Comms group based in Helsinki. He predominantly advises clients in complex cross-border IT outsourcing transactions as well as in IT contracting in general. He also leads Bird & Bird's Finnish Commercial group. His ability to quickly get to the core of the problem, focus on the key issues, and find win-win solutions is the essential element valued by his clients. In addition to advising numerous global IT service providers, Sakari also acts for the customer-side in various industry sectors, including financial services, aviation, defence and automotive. Sakari is also frequently engaged in M&A transactions, with a particular focus on technology-related transactions and the technology aspects of M&A in general. In addition, as an arbitrator, he is also involved in IT-related dispute resolution processes.
Teea Kemppinen is a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office and a member of our Finnish Employment Group. She specialises in all aspects of employment and labour law, including employment related dispute resolution where the advice is mainly focused on preventive and strategic action.
Tom Vapaavuori is a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office and the Head of our Finnish Dispute Resolution group as well as the co-head of our international Trade Secret group. He has a lot of experience in demanding litigations and arbitrations and trade secret matters. Tom works with a broad range of company litigations, arbitrations and white collar crimes. He also acts as an arbitrator, as nominated by parties in disputes, or by the arbitration institutes. He advises his leading domestic and international clients on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious matters in several sectors. In addition to dispute resolution he is especially active in contractual matters such as distribution, purchase and sale, co-operation, joint ventures, leasing, employment, intellectual property, IT and non-disclosure agreements.
Partner Ville Alahuhta is Head of Tax in Helsinki, advising on domestic and international tax matters in corporate and personal income taxation. In addition, he specialises in advising private equity fund managers and fund investors on legal questions concerning private equity funds. Understanding tax questions relating to private equity funds and M&A transactions is a key consideration when optimising profit for an investment. Working this area for more than ten years has given him the understanding of the link between the key business of the client, taxation and other legal aspects. In addition, Ville has been involved in several Finnish landmark tax litigations.