Head of Legal | Nordic Semiconductor
Christian Skovly-Guttormsen
Head of Legal | Nordic Semiconductor
What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?
Over the past 12 months, Nordic Semiconductor has undergone a period of significant change under new leadership, with a renewed focus on delivering innovative products to our customers. This has included a company-wide reorganisation and a reprioritisation of strategic initiatives, as well as our product and technology roadmap.
Periods of transformation offer in-house legal teams the opportunity to demonstrate their value. We supported a major global tender for our core software design tools, advised on multiple M&A initiatives, and handled a growing volume of customer contracts and evolving commercial requirements.
In parallel, we have strengthened our internal legal operations by improving ways of working and emphasising collaboration across business units. Building trusted relationships throughout the organisation has been key to enhancing our resilience and responsiveness in a fast-changing environment.
We have also worked closely with our compliance team to manage the implications of an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. This has included refining due diligence processes for partners and suppliers, and providing the business with practical, forward-looking guidance on export controls and sanctions.
Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on, of which you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful?
One of the more relevant developments this past year has been the practical use of large language models (LLMs) in our legal work. These tools have already helped improve the speed and efficiency of internal legal processes.
At Nordic Semiconductor, we have used LLMs for summarising and drafting contracts. We can now generate bullet-point summaries of lengthy agreements – sometimes over 40 pages – in just minutes. These are clearly labelled as LLM-generated and used only as a starting point for internal discussion while legal review continues. Even so, they’ve proven valuable for identifying key issues early and enabling faster dialogue with stakeholders and counterparties.
We continue to explore these tools with a balanced approach. They don’t replace legal judgement, but they do allow us to redirect time and focus towards more complex and strategic matters. For a lean legal team, they also help us do more with limited resources. Looking ahead, we see strong potential in automated contract review and intelligent archiving – both areas where structured insights and faster access can significantly improve legal operations.
What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?
I am passionate about how technology can contribute to a more sustainable society, particularly by reducing energy consumption. At Nordic Semiconductor, our ultra-low power wireless solutions enable meaningful energy savings across a wide range of applications. One example is our collaboration with Acuity Brands, which has led to smart lighting systems that have helped avoid over 2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions since 2016. It is rewarding to be part of a company where energy efficiency isn’t just a value-add – it is central to our business model and built into the technology we deliver every day.
