Hannes Snellman is a leading Finnish business law firm entrusted by its clients in matters of critical importance. We are visionary, dedicated, and human — a team of outstanding professionals who work together in a collaborative and empowering environment.
We are a community of individuals working towards a shared goal. With us, everyone is part of the team from day one. We believe our team spirit makes a difference not only to our people but also to our clients — when our people thrive, our clients get the best results.
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Hannes Snellman’s Employment Team advises domestic and foreign clients on all aspects of employment law. Our team handles assignments that cover the entire employment lifecycle from the beginning of the recruitment process until the end of the employment relationship, as well as employment-related dispute resolution. In practice, our clients contact us with different employment law-related matters, such as questions concerning employment and director agreements, change negotiations, working hours, annual holidays, and termination of employment. Our team works closely with the firm’s other practice areas, for example, in matters related to employee privacy, taxation, and intellectual property created by the employees. Our team is also regularly involved in transactional work and handles the employment due diligence phase and assists with the integration after the transaction. As most of our clients are companies, our team mainly advises employers and not individual employees.
The trainee is a valued member of the Employment Team and participates in the weekly team meetings and other events. The trainee assists the lawyers in their daily work, and the work tasks vary depending on the ongoing client assignments. Usually, our trainee helps with the legal research work, drafting of documents and memoranda, and contacting authorities, for example, when we need to order a court decision. The trainee is also responsible for compiling updates on current employment-related legislative changes. The tasks may also vary depending on the trainee’s own interests and skills.
We expect the trainee to be able to work both in Finnish and in English. We appreciate a positive and proactive attitude, the ability to work independently but also as part of a team, and taking ownership of the assigned tasks. Our team members are easy-going and approachable, and we hope our trainee is too. Previous experience within the field of employment law is not required, but a genuine interest towards employment law is a must for a successful traineeship.
Our IP & Technology Team handles everything from intellectual property rights and technology to data protection. Additionally, our team includes our public procurement practice. Our assignments range from contractual negotiations and regulatory investigations to complex court proceedings involving intellectual property, public procurement, data protection and IT matters, and telecommunications, media, and consumer protection. This keeps our work dynamic and versatile. We frequently cooperate with other teams within our firm, especially on mergers and acquisitions.
As a trainee, you will dive right into the action and take responsibilities similar to those of a freshly graduated lawyer. Your days will include a variety of tasks, including gathering information and legal research, translations, and drafting documents and contracts. You will also prepare presentations and trainings, write blog posts, and participate in events, team meetings, and seminars.
We are looking for trainees who are proactive, quick learners, and have a genuine interest towards technology, data protection, and intellectual property rights. Problem-solving skills and attention to detail are highly valued in our team. While succeeding in your studies and previous experience are beneficial, we place great emphasis on enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn. To be successful in this role, we expect you have strong communication and written skills both in Finnish and English.
A typical matter for the Dispute Resolution Team, or DR, is acting as counsel to a client in litigation or arbitral proceedings regarding a dispute. Our clients are businesses operating in various fields. Disputes often concern alleged breaches of contracts and claims for damages, but on a general level, matters can relate to almost any branch of law and any field of business. The disputes handled by the Dispute Resolution Team are typically associated with industrial projects, acquisitions, shareholder agreements, building projects, questions related to management responsibility, or claims for damages associated with competition law. Our team assists clients in both national and international trials and arbitral proceedings, as well as settlement negotiations and mediation procedures.
The Dispute Resolution Team also handles matters related to insolvency law, where the team assists clients in bankruptcy or restructuring proceedings or clients acting as creditors in insolvency procedures. Furthermore, the team assists clients on substantial business-related criminal law matters, such as comprehensive criminal trials related to trade secrets, bribery, and environmental matters.
The trainee’s tasks include legal investigations and drafting or assisting in drafting documents, such as memoranda and legal briefs. The tasks can also include managing large quantities of documentation. As representing clients in court is an essential part of our job description, the goal is that trainees also have a chance to attend court proceedings every now and then.
Obviously, interest in dispute resolution is greatly appreciated. The team’s work requires logical thinking and an ability to analyse different situations and detect what legal aspects these situations include. Since matters can concern almost any field of law, a general knowledge of different fields of law is an advantage. Also, interest towards current events of the world, different phenomena in the society around us, and their implications in our potential clients’ activities will make the traineeship more interesting. Qualities that are valued in a trainee also include precision, diligence, a good command of written and spoken Finnish and English, and argumentation skills. A good trainee also dares to think and bring up their ideas, as fresh ways of thinking and problem-solving skills are greatly appreciated in the team’s work.
The Tax Team provides domestic and cross-border advice on all aspects of taxation, including corporate tax, transfer pricing, indirect tax, and private wealth. Our team has extensive experience in complex transactions and defending taxpayers’ rights in high-end tax litigation. Our clients include leading domestic and international corporations, financial institutions, investors, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.
The Tax Team is experienced in advising clients on public and private M&A, capital markets, real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy transactions, and fund structures. Our specialists help clients with, for instance, structuring, advance tax ruling proceedings, preliminary discussions, and tax due diligence. In addition, our team regularly advises clients on tax and social security aspects relating to incentive plans.
In the field of tax litigation, the team assists corporate clients and individuals in various tax-related administrative and court processes before the Tax Board of Adjustment, administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Court.
Our assignments are often of an international nature, which highlights the importance of EU tax legislation and tax treaties. Our team works closely with other teams at Hannes Snellman, particularly M&A, Finance, Real Estate, and Employment.
Our trainee generally assists the team with client engagement work, composes drafts, and conducts general research. Research often concerns various tax-related processes and argumentation relevant to them. The trainee also prepares advance ruling applications, drafts emails to clients, and translates documents. The trainee is involved in engagements concerning all types of taxation, but any special interests are taken into consideration where possible. The main working languages are Finnish and English.
The Tax Team especially values a genuine interest towards tax law and is looking for someone who is eager to learn and grow with the team. Knowledge accrued during studies or previous work experience especially in the field of taxation is considered an advantage, but the Tax Team particularly appreciates good teamwork and collegial skills and strong language abilities. Attention to detail and sufficient calculation skills are also relevant, but more emphasis is placed on the trainee’s ability to work with others and communicate effectively.
Hannes Snellman’s Competition & Regulatory Team works with all aspects of competition law. We advise our clients in a variety of antitrust questions, for example by reviewing agreements, conducting competition law audits, providing compliance training, and drafting competition law compliance guidelines. In addition, we assist our clients in competition authority investigations and court proceedings. Our team also handles assignments relating to state aid, foreign subsidies (FSR), and foreign direct investments (FDI).
Our team works closely with the other practice areas within the firm, especially with the M&A Team. Most of our team’s matters are related to M&A transactions. We assist our clients in merger control proceedings before the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority and the European Commission. We often handle competition law due diligence and any other competition law-related questions that may arise during a transaction process.
The trainee’s tasks include in general a lot of legal investigations and research tasks. In transactions, the trainee may, for example, be asked to research market definitions based on earlier case law and collect information for merger notifications. In addition, the trainee’s typical tasks include drafting various legal texts, translating, following news, reporting, and preparing presentation materials. The tasks may also vary depending on the trainee’s own interests and skills. The trainee also takes part in team meetings and other team activities as part of the team. As our clients include both domestic and international companies, the main working languages are English and Finnish.
We appreciate a positive ‘can do’ attitude and taking ownership of the assigned tasks. We value good language and team working skills, precision, and flexibility. Our team members are easy-going and approachable, and we hope our trainee is too. While previous experience in competition law is not required, a genuine interest in the field and a willingness to learn are essential for a successful traineeship.
The Finance Team principally works with corporate financing transactions, including acquisition finance, companies’ own financing needs, and project financing. In addition, the Finance Team handles a broad range of matters relating to financial regulation. A typical client in a financing transaction is an international or domestic industrial operator, bank, or private equity operator, while most of the clients in financial regulatory matters are global financial institutions and asset managers. The client can also be a foreign law firm requesting assistance with Finnish law matters.
The Finance Team often works in co-operation with other teams of the firm, for instance, with the M&A, Real Assets, IP & Tech, and Tax Teams. In practice, finance matters are customised to the client’s needs, and the documentation relating to a specific assignment is often based on at least partially standardised documents, which is distinctive for finance matters.
The Finance Team usually has two trainees at a time. Different tasks related to both transactions and financial regulation are part of the trainees’ tasks. The trainees assist lawyers with drafting and reviewing transactions documents, especially documents related to contracts, minutes and other relevant documents. The trainees also participate in the signing and closing of transactions. Investigations can be anything within the area of finance, and often the investigated topics are something that have not been investigated before, meaning that the trainees have a chance to explore new topics. The trainees also have an active role in monitoring financial legislation and case law, allowing them to become familiar with the relevant regulation and its evolution.
The trainees take part in team meetings and other team activities, especially the team’s internal trainings and events. Like the other team members, the trainees also have a chance to organise training to their colleagues. When it comes to documentation, the main working language is English.
Especially a genuine interest and excitement towards finance and transactions alongside with motivation to learn new things are highly appreciated qualities. Of course, previous experience, relevant studies, or business degrees are an advantage as well. Fluency in English is essential, since a lot of the documentation is in English, but other language proficiency is also appreciated. Usually, projects are handled with other members of the team, so co-operation and communication skills are important.
The M&A Team’s assignments are often project-like in nature, which somewhat shapes the nature of the work. The team handles both private and public M&A matters. In the field of private M&A matters, the work includes different share and business transactions of companies. In the field of public M&A, the work includes transactions of different kinds relating to listed companies, such as listing processes, share issues, and takeovers. In addition, different projects including mergers and demergers are part of the practice in both the public and private sphere of M&A. The M&A Team also provides counsel to clients regarding corporate, securities market, and contract law matters. In M&A projects, the client can be, for example, a public limited company, private company, significant shareholder, or equity investor, which brings a different scope and emphasis to each matter.
We have three subteams in M&A that each have one or several trainees at a time, but all M&A trainees may also work together on joint projects. The trainees participate in a wide variety of different projects, and the tasks include, among other things, drafting corporate and contract law-related documents, doing legal research, contacting authorities, conducting due diligence audits related to acquisitions and data room coordination related thereto, and doing corporate and contract translations. In addition, especially in the public M&A practice, trainees may participate in drafting and reviewing prospectus documents. From the beginning, trainees are an equal part of the M&A Team and project-specific teams, and they participate in team meetings and other team activities like the rest of the team. The goal for the trainee period is to acquire a wide understanding about working in the M&A Team. The main working languages are Finnish and English.
The M&A Team appreciates initiative, analytic working, meticulousness, creativity, resilience, and most of all, excitement and interest towards the field and economics in general. Usually, when applying to this team, great grades in relevant subjects and general experience in the legal field are considered an advantage. Ability to adapt fast and good communication and team working skills are important qualities for a trainee, since the working environment is dynamic and the team is big. Although work in the M&A Team can sometimes be intensive, the team has a great and supporting atmosphere and the threshold of asking for help is low. This makes trainees’ integration effortless and fast.
The Projects & Construction Team specialises in advising our clients with informed insights in the most complex projects particularly within the energy, infrastructure, and commodities sectors, in relation to various types of project agreements and structures including construction, equipment supply and operation, and maintenance agreements, as well as many other service agreements. We know our way around standalone contracts and standardised forms of contract, such as the internationally used FIDIC suite of contracts, including the NLM10, NL09, and Orgalime general conditions, and the general terms applicable in the Nordic market. One of our main goals is helping our clients prevent resource-intensive and lengthy litigation following the completion of a project while also reaching a contract that is sound business-wise. To reach this goal, we utilise our forward-looking attitude in advising our clients on a full lifecycle approach, emphasising the importance of proper implementation of a signed contract package without forgetting the client’s goals.
The Real Estate Team works especially on real estate transactions and development projects. The team has experience in working with a number of domestic and international investors on all types of property acquisitions, disposals, sale and leaseback arrangements, structuring, fund formation, joint ventures, and lease negotiations, including some of the largest property development projects in Finland to date. In addition, the team advises clients on data centre projects. To provide our clients with seamless service, our team works in close cooperation with our specialists in finance, tax, and dispute resolution.
The Energy & Infrastructure Team guides clients through large-scale energy and infrastructure projects and transactions and provides strategic regulatory advice. Our team is composed of lawyers with profound expertise in energy law and regulatory matters affecting the energy and infrastructure sector, coupled with leading know-how in contractual practices.
We have a strong track record of assisting both domestic and international clients in some of the most significant and complex renewable energy and infrastructure projects and transactions in Finland. Our experience encompasses wind power, solar photovoltaic, and battery energy storage systems and some of the largest energy distribution deals in the Finnish market. Additionally, our team has extensive experience in Finnish public–private partnership (PPP) projects. Our clients include a diverse range of stakeholders such as utilities, project sponsors and developers, system operators, international infrastructure funds, lenders, contractors, and public bodies. Our approach is centred on providing informed insights and strategic advice, ensuring that our clients achieve their business objectives while navigating the complexities of the energy and infrastructure sectors.