Team size: 9

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department?

Christina Wiggen has been promoted to the group executive management as group director of legal, HR, quality, compliance and HSE.  General counsel reports to Wiggen which reports to CEO and the board.

Johansen joined Sporveien from Wikborg Rein in 2015. He was appointed head of group legal in January 2019 and group general counsel in February 2021. General counsel has the overall responsibility for all legal advice in the group. In addition, Johansen provides strategic advice to diction makers within the group and the large projects.

Our other layers in the legal team consist of highly qualified senior lawyers with various specialisation that fulfil the groups’ legal demand within a wide spectre of legal issues. We serve the group with legal and strategic advice within all eras of our business. All lawyers serve the groups’ need for legal advice related to our core business such as contractual law, public procurement, negotiation, and disputes.

Vegard Sandaa Karlsen and Mads Dahl Karlsen are our designated lawyers in construction law. Vegard Karlsen has more than 20 years of experience joined our team in 2020 from a partner position in Bergaard. Mads Karlsen joined our team in 2019 from Kvale. He has a broad experience with construction law and manufacturing contracts and is our dedicated lawyer for the procurement of new vehicles for the metro together with the general counsel.

Kristine Wang has been a lawyer in PWC and partner in Føyen Torkildsen for 17 years prior to joining Sporveien in March 2017. Wang is our designated lawyer within real estate and land expropriation. Eva Haugen is specialised in construction law and manufacturing contracts, and she has been the dedicated lawyer to Sporveien’s metro project with procurement of new signaling system together with the general counsel. Gaute Larsen Melås is responsible for IT-contracts and public law.

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

The biggest project at Sporveien for the time being is the new signalling system for the metro. Sporveien will replace the railway signalling to communications-based train control (CBTC), which is a big step for our metro company. The introduction of a new signalling system will take place while we maintain the operation of the metro as much as possible, which makes the project more complicated. Sporveien is the first company in the world to use the public mobile network for signalling systems.

Lars Johansen
Group general counsel
Sporveien