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Overview
Norway’s lawyers were busy with transactional work until the credit crunch struck in the autumn of 2008. Now the Norwegian economy faces several specific problems – the steep decline in the price of oil, the collapse of shipping rates; and finance issues which affect the real estate, shipbuilding and offshore construction industries. At the start of 2009, restructuring and renegotiation of contracts, employment issues on downsizing, and an increase in litigation were replacing transactional work. So, law firms remained busy, and confidence was sufficient for commitments to be made by several firms to enlarge offices or to move to larger premises.
Potential clients have a good choice of law firm in Norway. Training is excellent and service standards generally very high. There are some complaints of over-delegation and inadequate supervision of junior lawyers in the larger firms. The leading group of four firms, Bugge, Arentz-Hansen & Rasmussen, Thommessen Krefting Greve Lund AS, Wiersholm, and Wikborg Rein, continues to be pressed by Advokatfirmaet Schjødt DA and Advokatfirmaet Selmer DA which ‘ is making inroads on the bigger set’.
Rather smaller but offering comparable standards, Advokatfirmaet Haavind AS, Arntzen de Besche Advokatfirma AS, Advokatfirmaet Steenstrup Stordrange DA and Simonsen Advokatfirma DA made up the top ten the basis of 2007 turnover.
New legislation and regulation inevitably continues. The Securities Trading Act and Stock Exchange Act, which introduced the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, are now fully operational and, on 1 January 2008, new regulations for life and pensions companies were introduced through the Act on Insurance Activity. The Competition Authority has issued guidelines for the application of the Competition Act to collusive tendering and there have been changes to the procedural merger control rules. One of the more important changes, in response to pressure from the European Free Trade Association, is the new legislative framework for the acquisition of power plants. Changes to the shipping tonnage tax have been controversial, and a good deal of work has been generated for lawyers.