Team size: DNV Group Legal department is responsible for providing legal advice to all business areas on a global basis and consist of about 45 lawyers and legal operations staff in a distributed team located at Høvik, Adelaide, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Hamburg, London, Glasgow, Houston and Mexico City. In addition, Group Legal Director owns the governance and responsibility of about 50 legal contract specialists in Contract Functions supporting the global organization with their contract management.

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

In 2025, DNV Group Legal had a focus on strategic global projects related to identified legal risks, such as conflict of interest. As a provider of both assurance and advisory services, Group Legal has identified potential conflict of interest as a significant legal risk for DNV. Group Legal has therefore been instrumental in: establishing global governance and implementing systems and digital tools for solid and efficient COI handling in DNV. I, as Group Legal Director, am also Chair of the DNV Group Impartiality Committee, which is the highest escalation body for COI discussions in the organisation.

Efficiency in contracting has been another focus. DNV enters hundreds of thousands of contracts every year. We are therefore dependent on finding a balance between an efficient contracting process and still ensuring that our business units’ contract on terms that align with our pre-defined contracting risk appetite. DNV Group Legal has established a Global Contracting function that shall be responsible for supporting the global DNV organisation. A global team of contract specialists will provide support on contract review/management, applying the DNV Contracting Principles through efficient processes, including use of AI contracting tools.

Due to continued pressure for in-house legal departments to deliver more for less, Group Legal in DNV has established a Legal Operations team that is driving operational excellence initiatives in Group Legal, including implementation and adoption of legal tech and AI.

In addition to these improvement projects, DNV Group Legal has provided critical and very successful support to the DNV organisation in several M&A and litigation processes.

As the in-house role continues to evolve from legal advisor to business partner, what strategies have you found most effective for stakeholder management and aligning legal advice with business strategy?

DNV Group Legal aims to be a true business partner, a strategic opportunity enabler and a trusted risk identifier and guardian through delivery of high-quality commercial legal advice. The team is a global, tech- and data-enabled legal partner that supports business growth, safeguards compliance and delivers strategic value through proactive legal services with a voice into DNV’s strategic decision-making forums.

We aim to be recognised by internal clients for delivering proactive business enabling advice and strategic value based on a combination of deep legal expertise and intimate knowledge of DNV’s business sectors, regulatory environment and strategic objectives – earning their trust and partnership.

We focus on legal services that directly enable DNV’s strategic priorities as identified in the Group and BA strategies. We will adopt a differentiated service model: best-in-class for areas with either high strategic legal risk or business enablement potential, while standardising and automating routine tasks and working with lower legal risk impact.

With AI-enhanced legal operations, data-enabled insights and automated processes, Group Legal will deliver faster, more consistent and more strategic legal services.

What key trends – and challenges – should in-house lawyers be monitoring over the next year?

DNV Group Legal, as well as other in-house legal functions, is increasingly facing a landscape of growing complexity and uncertainty: business model changes; implementation of new technologies with new vendor relationships; a volatile political environment; and heightened demands from regulators and enforcement agencies. All these forms of uncertainty are shaping how we are managing complex and novel legal issues to achieve business goals.

There are some of the trends that I am focusing on when setting strategic direction for my team.

Tools like generative AI are changing how legal teams handle contracts, due diligence, research and compliance. Understanding both the capabilities and limitations is vital. DNV Group Legal is therefore currently in the process of developing an AI-enabled contract review tool to improve both efficiency and quality of the contract review process.

Growing layers of regulation, particularly around conflict of interest, data, AI, ESG and cross-border operations, demand more agile and informed legal responses. As an assurance provider, very often in an independent third-party role, DNV operates in a very regulatory-heavy industry. This increased complexity increases both the strategic importance and demand for more proactive ways of working for our lawyers.

Cybersecurity and incident response is another key trend. Legal teams are increasingly involved in preparing for and responding to data breaches, including reporting obligations and stakeholder communications. In DNV, Legal is heavily involved in establishing the cybersecurity governance framework, handling of incidents and the purchasing of DNV’s cyber insurance.

Another trend is ESG scrutiny and greenwashing risk: regulators and investors are scrutinising ESG claims. DNV is subject to such scrutiny both related to its own reporting, but also related to our ESG service portfolio, which includes ESG assurance. DNV Group legal is involved in developing our own ESG governance framework and supports the business in its navigation of the applicable regulatory framework.

Global workforce and remote working laws also need to be monitored. Employment, tax and compliance risks related to distributed teams and remote work policies are rising, along with governments’ focus on contingent workforce development. In-house lawyers in global companies therefore need to navigate in a fragmented regulatory environment to ensure compliance.