Advokatfirmaet Hjort

Alex Borch specializes in employment law and dispute resolution. Alex assists both employers and employees with legal advice and in legal disputes in the practice area of employment law. He has comprehensive litigation experience and has negotiated a large number of termination agreements for both employers and employees. Additionally, Alex has special experience involving employees who start up a competing business – or transfer to competing businesses. He has edited the book “Konkurransebegrensninger i arbeidsforhold” and been asked by the Ministry to contribute to the legislative process that resulted in new legislation being adopted in the area. Alex has extensive experience involving professional liability and board members’ liability. In 2019 he handled many large compensation cases against law firms in both the Court of Appeals and the Norwegian Supreme Court. Alex has also assisted many former board members in compensation proceedings. Alex has broad litigation experience from various contract disputes. The disputes have involved e.g. purchases, franchise relationships, collaboration agreements and distribution agreements.

Anne Marie Due the managing partner at Hjort and a member of our employment law department.  She has extensive experience in this practice area. Anne Marie is experienced within employment law, including the law for government employees, pensions, privacy, administrative law and litigation. Anne Marie assists clients in both the private and public sectors and has broad experience in the particular problems that are relevant for public sector entities. Anne Marie assists clients both with legal advice and as legal counsel in connection with most issues in employment law, pensions, privacy and administrative law. Notably, she has conducted several cases before the Norwegian Supreme Court during the last few years concerning issues such as the limitations to the employer’s management prerogative when relocating or making changes in senior policy measures; the issue of whether the loss of contractual early retirement pension scheme (AFP) implies a right to vote in the transfer of a business, and whether employers are entitled to use information from waste disposal vehicles’ satellite navigation system to detect possible employment irregularities. Anne Marie has also conducted a case before the Norwegian Supreme Court in a plenary session. The case addressed whether an instruction laid down by the government was in violation of the constitution. Furthermore, Anne Marie has conducted a number of cases before the district courts and courts of appeals on a range of labour law issues, including several cases concerning the future regulation of pension rights and responsibility for costs associated with these. In addition, Anne Marie has had extensive advisory assignments, including offering ongoing advice in whistleblowing cases and . The investigative assignments have included looking into whether the Working Environment Act’s requirement to a suitable working environment had been violated, various forms of harassment, privacy law breaches, and cases of violation of employees’ individual rights.

Claude A. Lenth is a partner in Hjort’s Employment Law department. With over twenty years of experience as a lawyer Lenth has extensive experience within the employment law practice area, data privacy law and GDPR. Lenth’s large client portfolio consists of national and international companies and businesses, and public institutions as well. He is also frequently requested by managing leaders of organizations for assistance with their legal matters. Lenth provides legal counseling within all practice areas of employment law, including pension rights. Lenth advises in various matters such as restructuring and reorganization, business transfers, employment termination and dismissals, non-compete and restrictive covenants, temporary staffing procedures, termination agreement negotiations, as well as working environment conditions. Working environment conditions include whisteblowing cases and internal investigations. Lenth also has experience from the Norwegian courts and the Court of Arbitration. Since 1997, Lenth has also worked with data privacy matters within employment law. He has comprehensive experience with all types of privacy matters within various branches and social areas, such as in the employment sector, research and health sector, investigation assignments, e-commerce and network solutions, and marketing. Lenth also advises private and public entities with all types of privacy law issues and assignments. These issues can pertain to compliance and transferring of confidential information outside of the EEA/EU area, with regards to cloud-services, the evaluation and establishment of routines for data security. Lenth’s experience with the data security for documents has been beneficial for his assistance with cases pertaining to inquiries and complaints for the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA) and the Privacy Appeals Board. Lenth also assists clients with data protection within inquiries, data seizures and defense assignments. Recently, Lenth has assisted a number of private and public businesses with GDPR compliance and has been actively engaged in hearings pertaining to The Personal Data Act through his position on the Data Protection committee in the Norwegian Association of Lawyers.