Team size: four

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured?

We are active in multiple European markets. The three lawyers in the legal team are experts in their respective geographies – one of them in the Nordic jurisdictions, another one in the English and Irish jurisdictions, and the third one in the continental European jurisdictions. We are working as a team and draw on each other’s expertise in regular meetings and frequent bilateral exchanges.

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the past six months, we have been engaged in discussions with the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) on the reform of the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 (“CACM-Regulation”). This Regulation is of vital importance for us, as it constitutes the legal basis on which power exchanges are allowed to compete in EU member states. When CACM was first drafted, it still allowed for many loopholes that undermine fair competition. Our mission is to point out these loopholes and to ensure that they are included in the latest version (“CACM 2.0”).

How does the team contribute constructively to the growth and expansion of the company?

The team’s focus is to fight for a fair and level competitive playing field across the markets we compete in. In continental Europe, market practices are heavily skewed in favour of the incumbent power exchange. With the gradual levelling of the playing field for power exchange competition, more market participants are freed of their historical ties to the incumbent power exchange and may decide to move to the competitor, The US.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel?

Remote work has become the norm, rather than the exception. That said, even before the pandemic, half of my team members were connected virtually due to them working in various locations. Before the pandemic, we had regular physical meetings, which have now stopped. Otherwise, I see minor change to the world of work for in-house counsel.

In a changing financial landscape, how does the company remain competitive against new phenomena such as fintech and blockchain, and how does the legal team assist with this?

As a power exchange, we are an IT platform operator, and almost half of our staff work in IT. We are at the forefront of these modern technologies as part of our business striving for constant innovation. An example is the roll-out of so-called application programming interfaces (APIs) to our customers. APIs allow the computers of our customers to communicate directly with our trading platforms, therefore increasing the speed of communication between our systems and the systems of our customers.

Camilla Berg
General counsel
Nord Pool