About

When Aker BioMarine, the world’s leading supplier of krill (the highly demanded shrimp-like crustacean from Antarctic waters), recognised that there was a need to address its increasingly complex legal issues in a more structured and professional manner it recruited Lars Jacobsen, as the first full time general counsel to its firm in 2017. Since then both he and IP counsel Edvard Brække have excelled as the legal team of the company, working a number of key deals in a short space of time such as the acquisition of the company’s two biggest competitors in the krill oil space, a settlement agreement with a supplier over disagreements in a 10 year equipment licensing deal and the purchase of the krill vessel Juvel with a subsequent dispute over IP rights to its production equipment. Whilst Brække directly handles most of Aker BioMarine’s IP work and manages its patent portfolio, Jacobsen handles the rest of the legal work and is involved in all major decisions such as litigations and other enforcement actions. The team is credited for implementing and driving efficiencies through its use of some of the newest and most effective legal IT tools such electronic signatures for contracts, a compliance data base that scans for compliance irregularities worldwide and a box document management system that gives global access to all company employees to “self-serve” themselves with pre-approved, template agreements. Commenting on the team culture, Jacobsen says, ‘As a small, cost-focused company, we employ a can-do approach and avoid bureaucracy. This is done by being confident in the advice we give and that we tailor it to the needs of the business side rather than protecting our backs with long memos’.