What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

Many projects the past year have been related to the high cocoa costs that has hit the chocolate industry. External factors that have put pressure on the organisation with us at at Legal navigating the business in risk assessments.

A project that I believe many Norwegian lawyers have been aware of is the court case that Orkla brought against us resulting in a settlement last summer. The case related to the packaging of our chocolate Freia Boble which Orkla alleged to be too close looking to their product Stratos. In the case Orkla also alleged to have incorporated trademark right to the blue colour on aerated chocolate in Norway. To our surprise (and possibly many other trademark lawyers in Norway) Oslo District Court judged in favor of Orkla’s claims in June 2024. The case was then resolved by a settlement whereupon both parties made design changes with their portfolio.

As an inhouse-lawyer much of my work within the dispute consisted of coordinating between our external counsels, internal stakeholders, and external witnesses. Most importantly I found my role as in-house counsel to manage expectations within business and risk awareness. Not always an easy job

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

With emerging complexity in the world and increased regulatory pressure I believe it is crucial for us in-house counsels to connect with each other and learn. We have sometimes a very wide scope of legal matters to deal with whereupon we cannot be experts on all areas – we need to seek help from others and be better at delegating within business. All legal matters do not have to be performed by Legal. Train the business on being our legal champions!

An important attribute for us in-house lawyers is also to be part of the commercial talk, especially for us that sits within local management. To be a speaking partner not only to discuss legal matters with. We often have a solid understanding on business, more than we first think.

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

We have recently started a pilot in which we at Nordic Legal will start using a legal tech solution managing our incoming matters. The challenges so far have not been so much on the compliance of data protection laws, more on how we as a legal department can have efficient case management without jeopardising how we interact with our internal stakeholders. We don’t want to be transformed to an anonymous helpdesk. It is important that we stay close with business and allow ourselves for informal check-ins. At the same time using the legal tech out there to help us – sometimes a tricky balance.