About

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 Melbi as operating effectively as ‘an in-house law firm’. Serving the organisation and its more than 2,000 employees on a comprehensive basis, Melbi elaborates on the structure of the team as follows: ‘All of the team members are key individuals, each a part of the whole. With varying backgrounds from corporations and law firms, we need to be flexible as well as competent within several areas, ranging from company law and capital markets to corporate governance and due diligence’. With a range of internal stakeholders to protect and support, the department firmly stands by the company’s motto of being ‘driven, responsible, brave and helpful’ on a number of different business matters. One recent example of the team in action was its involvement in Söderberg & Partners’ sale of shares to KKR, which secured a substantial investment from the leading global investment firm, in line with the company’s growth and expansion strategy. This complements the team’s work supporting ‘numerous other projects and vital cases and agreements contributing to the rapid and successful growth of the Söderberg & Partners Group, not only in Sweden but also in the rest of Europe’. Due to its compact size and continued demonstration of risk mitigation for its business in a courageous and honest way, Melbi sums up the team’s motto as being ‘the small team with the big heart’.