| Arvato Financial Solutions
A Bertelsmann Group subsidiary, Arvato Financial Solutions is a global financial service provider with around 7,500 employees in 20 countries, including a strong presence in Europe, America and Asia. The...
| ASSA ABLOY
The ASSA ABLOY group is the global leader in access solutions, offering products and services related to openings, such as locks, doors, gates, entrance automation and identity management solutions. ASSA...
| AstraZeneca
Having a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. It has a strong...
| Atlas Copco
One of the largest revenue generating entities in the entire Nordic region, historic industrials company Atlas Copco has a number of business interests centred on the manufacturing of industrial tools...
| Axfood
Founded in 2000, Axfood is Sweden’s second largest food retailer with brands such as Hemköp and Tempo. The company’s legal department is led by general counsel Sandra Brånstad who joined...
| BillerudKorsnäs
‘The legal team’s vision is that we shall make ourselves redundant in the long-term. What we aim to achieve with this vision is to always try to focus our resources...
| Boliden
Founded almost 90 years ago, Swedish mining and smelting corporation Boliden is a highly technological business with several mines and smelters working to supply base and precious metals on a...
| Bonnier Broadcasting
Bonnier Broadcasting is one of the Nordic region’s biggest television companies and is leading the development of video content and digitalisation of the television industry. Led by general counsel Ulrika...
| Danske Bank
Danske Bank is one of the Nordic region’s principal financial services institutions, and has a number of subsidiaries across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, as well as in markets further...
| Deutsche Pfandbriefbank
Deutsche Pfandbriefbank is a leading specialist bank for investments in commercial real estate and public infrastructure projects in Europe and the US. Richard Bergflo is the director and senior legal...
| Dustin Group
Dustin Group is a leading online based IT-partner with operations in the Nordics and the Netherlands. Sara Edlund serves as general counsel and head of legal and leads a ‘small...
| Electrolux
Through its brands, including Electrolux, AEG and Frigidaire, Electrolux sells more than 60 million household and professional products in more than 150 markets every year. In 2018 Electrolux had sales...
| EQT
Featuring a number of outstanding professionals including lawyers, compliance specialists and one assistant, the legal team serving Swedish private equity group EQT has members active in New York, London, Luxembourg...
| Ericsson
Headquartered in Stockholm, Ericsson is a world leader in the rapidly changing environment of communications technology – by providing hardware, software, and services to enable the full value of connectivity....
| Essity
Listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company having about 47,000 employees and net sales of approximately SEK118.5bn in 2018. Mikael Schmidt heads...
| Fortum
One of Sweden’s main electricity providers, Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum has a significant presence in Sweden’s utilities market, and requires competent and agile legal support to help mitigate business...
| Hennes & Mauritz (H&M)
H&M Group is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company consisting of eight defined brands, including H&M, COS and ARKET. With around 4,900 stores in 72 markets worldwide, the Group achieved a...
| Hexagon
‘[Our team] supports the dynamic environment of the Hexagon Group by providing world-class legal advice to add value and foster sound decision-making in all areas of operation. Our function is...
| If P&C Insurance
Fully owned by Sampo (listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange), If P&C Insurance offers a full range of insurance solutions and services to a broad customer base, from private individuals...
| IKEA
IKEA is a Swedish multinational group that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home products, among other useful goods and occasionally home services. As of June 2019, there...
| iZettle
iZettle is a Swedish financial technology company founded in 2010, offering a range of financial products including payments, point of sales, funding and partners applications. Its legal department is led...
| Klarna Bank
Founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Klarna is now one of Europe’s largest banks and is providing payment solutions for 60 million consumers across 130,000 merchants in 14 countries. Headed by...
| Microsoft
Microsoft’s corporate, external and legal affairs (CELA) department in Sweden is an integrated part of the wider Western Europe team. The Western Europe legal team is led by assistant general...
| Modern Times Group MTG
A leading international digital entertainment company, MTG is a Stockholm-based organisation that has a diverse range of interests in the production, sale and broadcasting of entertainment. In 2019 the company...
| Nasdaq
With a number of lawyers based in Sweden working on behalf of the world’s second largest stock exchange, the Nasdaq Sweden legal team contains a diverse range of commercial and...
| Nobina
Summing up the success of the company’s legal team, Martin Pagrotsky – Nobina’s general counsel, chief compliance officer and company secretary – explains that his function has been ‘very successful...
| Nordax Bank
Serving 185,000 customers in the Nordics and Germany, Nordax Bank is one of the fastest growing companies in the financial services sector in the region. To manage risk and assist...
| Nordea
Nordea is the largest financial services group in the Nordic region and one of the biggest banks in Europe with a total operating income of €9bn and total assets of...
| Nordic Capital
Nordic Capital is a leading private equity investor in Northern Europe, having invested €14bn through nine funds since its inception in 1989. The Nordic Capital legal team is split across...
| SAS
SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) is Scandinavia’s leading airline with daily flights to destinations in Europe, the US and Asia. SAS is a member of Star Alliance and together with 26...
| Siemens
Siemens opened its first company in Sweden in 1893, and today it has 4,200 employees in 40 locations with headquarters in Stockholm. During the fiscal year 2018, sales for Siemens...
| Skanska
Highly proficient in all relevant legal affairs related to multinational construction and development company Skanska’s business remit, the organisation’s Group legal department led by Caroline Fellenius-Omnell operates with a high...
| Söderberg & Partners
A six-person function made up of five lawyers and a paralegal, the legal department of Swedish financial services firm Söderberg & Partners is described by its head of legal Julia...
| Spotify
Launched in Sweden in 2008, Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming service with a community of 217 million active users, including 100 million subscribers across 79 markets. The...
| Stora Enso
Stora Enso is a leading provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions and paper on global markets. Per Lyrvall is the executive vice president legal and general counsel,...
| Svenska Handelsbanken
Svenska Handelsbanken is a Swedish bank providing universal banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including life insurance. As the oldest company...
| Sweco
Sweco is Europe’s leading engineering and architecture consultancy with approximately 16,000 employees across 14 countries and about SEK18.7bn (€1.8bn) in annual sales. Listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, the company...
| Swedish Orphan Biovitrum
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, commonly known as Sobi, is a company that provides access to innovative treatments that make a significant difference for people with rare diseases. Despite its Swedish base...
| Tele2
Headquartered in Kista – Europe’s largest information and communications technology cluster – Tele2 is an international telecommunications operator with a footprint extending throughout the Nordic and Baltic countries, and brought...
| Telenor Sweden
Telecommunications provider Telenor Sweden has been, and currently still is, going through a digital transformation and has a strategic approach to being a “digital frontrunner” within the country. With its...
| Telia Company Sweden
Drawing on the internal support of a legal department skilled and knowledgeable in several areas related to the telecommunications industry, telecoms giant Telia Company is well-served by an outstanding legal...
| Telia Finance
Telia Finance is an independent company acting as a finance engine for Telia Company, one of the world’s biggest telecom operators with more than 185 million customers and 21,000 employees....
| Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak was founded in Lund in 1951 and has since become the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions firm, known for its technically innovative and ubiquitous products that...
| The Absolut Company
The Absolut Company (TAC) is based in Stockholm, and is one of six brand companies within Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-largest spirits group. As of 2018, Absolut is sold in...
| Three
Operating under the brands “Three” or “3”, Hi3G Access is a Swedish mobile telecommunications operator owned by the Hong Kong based CK Hutchison and Swedish firm Investor, serving private and...
| Unilever Nordics
Global consumer goods giant Unilever has a strong presence in the Nordic countries, and its business activities in the region are supported by a compact but agile, knowledgeable and business-savvy...
| Välinge Innovation
Director of legal affairs Marcus Palm oversees the internal legal department of building materials company Välinge, and the department of five lawyers has bountiful experience and knowledge in its ranks....
| Vasakronan
Vasakronan is Sweden’s largest real estate company and one of the largest players among companies in the Swedish and Norwegian capital markets. The market value of its property portfolio amounts...
| Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a leading European energy company with approximately 20,000 employees. Its main markets include Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK. The legal department of Vattenfall is headed...
| Volvo Group
With approximately 160 lawyers spread across the globe, iconic Swedish vehicle manufacturer Volvo Group is served by an in-house legal team able to draw on a deep pool of legal...
Continuing to punch above its weight for a country of its size, the Swedish economy continues to see innovation, creativity and productivity in ample amounts across various market sectors. With strong international brands as well as companies with a strong local presence – in addition to a highly active technology hub – Sweden’s in-house legal community is extremely busy mitigating risk and ensuring continued prosperity and growth.
The first edition looking at in-house legal teams in the country, this year’s GC Powerlist: Sweden Teams showcases the highest achieving legal departments that are transforming internal legal services in Sweden, whilst being indispensable within their organisations. Themes emergent from the research, which spanned several months and entailed conversations with many in-house legal specialists and leaders in the country, saw many teams producing solutions to deal with challenges including growing digitalisation, changing market environments and the impact of new regulations.
Contributing several inventive and disruptive products and services to global markets, it would not be a stretch to claim Swedish companies have changed many things about world business. Our research proved that in tandem, Sweden’s in-house legal teams are contributing to the changing nature of in-house legal practice. Some examples of this include an increasing emphasis on data privacy and cyber security, restructuring in order to bring counsel closer to various business units, and revising and enhancing recruitment processes. Sweden also has a proud record regarding diversity and inclusion, and the teams featured here also follow, with legal departments led by women featuring prominently in this shortlist.
The legal teams selected have therefore demonstrated exceptional ability in handling a wide range of challenges, and excel within the context of the Swedish market. They are innovators and examples of the best quality that the Swedish
in-house legal sector has to offer, and it is our pleasure at The Legal 500 to recognise their abilities.
I am delighted to announce that Hamilton, a year on from the highly successful partnership with The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Sweden, has been selected to host this year’s equally significant GC Powerlist: Sweden Teams. This was established to highlight the substantial work of in-house counsel teams and their activity in the legal service sector.
We wish to congratulate all the nominated teams, as you empower the in-house legal function to be at the heart of business development. As a result, the relationship between corporate governance and the legal team has become increasingly important and CEOs throughout Sweden are recognising more than ever their intrinsic value. In order to live up to corporate expectations, the team members have to be in tune with each other as well as company strategy. This implies communication flow, exchange of knowledge, and fluid individual leadership within the team structure.
The role of today’s GC (general counsel) team is to ensure that complex legal issues are resolved with solutions that fit the needs of their specific business. What struck me personally with all the nominees was the amazing diversity of the sectors represented, the teams’ combined skill sets and the results achieved. Moreover, the teams lead by way of their legal guidance for the other departments in the company.
Furthermore, the teams are at the forefront of the continual development of technology which is one of the most fundamental current trends. In addition, the rapidly changing regulatory landscape requires these teams to be continually updated regarding business knowledge.
The value of a GC team, whether it is large or small, is more significant today than ever before. They are a barometer of their company’s business, and their guidance produces the oxygen for clear and informed decision-making.
At Hamilton, we have worked closely with exceptional teams throughout Sweden. We treasure these relationships as they lay the foundations for a stronger practice tailored to meet the team’s high expectations. Furthermore, the teams guide us in our transformation regarding our role as external legal counsels in supporting in-house legal teams in their strategy and business planning.
We know the value of these teams. Therefore, we have created one of the market’s most ambitious development programmes for GCs and their teams: Hamilton Insights. This program is a series of seminars that provide a greater understanding of pertinent subjects and market updates in various key practice areas. This is supported by Hamilton Perspectives, our legal newsletter, which includes news from business sectors and our practice groups. These initiatives provide GC teams with further tools for the challenges being faced in today’s legal world.
The future looks exciting for GC teams, and Hamilton is excited about supporting them in the development of the legal service sector going forward. Once again, all the teams that have been recognised in the Powerlist deserve our warmest congratulations regarding their innovative and exceptional achievement.
For the third consecutive year, Legal 500 partnered with Red Legal Iberoamericana to celebrate the very best in-house counsel from across Europe who dedicate their efforts to the vibrant region of Latin America. In fact, these lawyers possess a unique set of skills that enables them to navigate the challenges and diversity of Latin America in an agile and well-versed manner.
The event took place at the Hotel Wellington in the elegant city of Madrid, Spain, on 7th November 2024. Attendees were welcomed by Sara Maggi, senior editor — research and content at Legal 500, who congratulated all the powerlisters for their contributions to business across Latin America and emphasised the importance of recognising such exceptional lawyers.
Julio Veloso, partner at Broseta Abogados, then took the stage. After offering his congratulations, he invited Alejandro Sainz, senior partner at Sainz Abogados, to join him on stage. They reiterated their pride in sponsoring this research and publication, which recognises unmatched talent.
Santiago González Pérez, vice president and senior employment counsel for EMEA at American Express, shared an in-house perspective on the challenges of working in-house and managing client expectations while operating in a business environment. He also highlighted the importance of being recognised by such prestigious publications.
The evening continued with a cocktail reception featuring drinks and canapés, alongside networking opportunities between talented peers. The event was a great success, and we look forward to next year, as we continue to recognise the efforts of Latin American specialists based across Europe.
