Key team members: Janus Hillerup (Group General Counsel); Lisbet Johansen (Paralegal); Heidi Østergaard (Director); Mathias Skrubbeltrang (Manager); Hannes Gosch (Manager); Mads Aksel Thorning (Associate), Gloria George (Associate)

Team size: Seven FTEs (+ five Law University Students) 

Jurisdictions your role covers: Global 

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The team has been a key contributor in helping raise our most recent real estate fund (Nordic Strategies Fund 6), including assisting in drafting and negotiating the required legal documents for investors investing in NSF 6, a fund that is key to the continued success of Urban Partners. The team has also been instrumental in establishing a recent joint venture that will form the basis for an entirely new investment strategy within the urban regeneration area (confidential). Finally, the team has contributed to a number of recent key transactions made through the company’s real estate funds. In addition, given that our company has a specific focus on building a sustainable future for urban areas, our team has also invested significant resources into assisting the business in understanding recent legislation within the area of ESG, including CSRD, SFDR and general greenwashing regulation.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

The team, together with the business, analyses and determines where the value-add from the legal team can outweigh the specialist knowledge of external legal counsel. That analysis includes, amongst other elements, cost-benefit analysis, the need for specialist legal knowledge, and resource requirements and deployment. In addition, it has been decided that core strategic activities require building in-house knowledge to handle these matters, and hence the legal team must be involved in such activities.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

In late 2024, the team laid out a new strategic plan with 10 concrete actions to ensure the team would focus its energy and resources on value-adding services. This included involving the team in two areas where the company had so far relied solely on external legal counsel. The two areas were capital formation, which includes negotiating legal documentation for investors to be onboarded to the company’s funds, and secondly, involving the team in material M&A transactions performed through the company’s real estate funds. The strategy has been deployed with great success through a focused and dedicated effort by the team members, working with the business to identify who and where the team can bring the most value. The team is now being recognised as a key contributor to realising the business’ strategic goals in these crucial areas for Urban Partners.