Greetings from Alumni: Heidi Nissilä, Paralegal, Fortum Oyj

In the second part of this autumn’s Greetings from Alumni series, we interviewed Heidi Nissilä, who works as a paralegal at Fortum Oyj. During her time at Hannes between 2001 and 2008, Heidi worked as a legal assistant.

Hi Heidi, how are you? 

I’m very well, thank you for asking. I just returned to the office after a short summer vacation in Italy and noticed autumn and crisp mornings have finally arrived after a lengthy period of warm and sunny summer. It is great to be back at work, and I am very much looking forward to the legal meeting plans for the fall, our planned projects on AI, and new apps and other development topics on the agenda.

You work as a paralegal at Fortum Oyj. Can you tell us about your daily work and what is included in the responsibilities of a paralegal?

I am part of the Corporate Governance team and assist the general counsel and the corporate legal with day-to-day governance related to the board of directors and board committees, occasionally also the Fortum Leadership Team and company group-wide committees. My responsibilities include, for instance, meeting and working plans and preparations, stakeholder engagement and communication, review and deliveries of materials, minutes drafting, and meeting logistics. Also basic legal research, drafting of basic legal documents, intranet updates, administration of the legal knowledge management system, and participation in ongoing projects and development related to the legal team are some other responsibilities of a paralegal, to list a few.

On top of your time at Hannes, you have experience from the Federation of Finnish Financial Services and companies such as Nordea and now Fortum. What would you say that are the three most important qualities when working in business support roles?

Business support roles require several qualities. I think Hannes, Finance Finland, Nordea, and Fortum all value same qualities and only the focus — or top three qualities — have varied a bit, depending on the role. If I need to slim down the qualities to three most important, I would note strong organisational skills, good communication, and adaptability. In a business support role, you need to be diligent and resilient, have the ability to prioritise multiple and ad hoc tasks, plan well ahead, and meet the deadlines, sometimes under pressure and still with attention to detail. Good communication in a business support role is timely, accurate, and useful, both written and verbal, both to internal and external stakeholders. It is important to ensure that communication, style, and tools are clear and relevant and support the stakeholder engagement and processes in the current organisation's business. Also, despite good planning, unexpected challenges or last-minute changes or needs can and have happened. Needs vary in different organisations, and the ability to adapt and find solutions or even new tools or systems is important. Curiosity and continuous learning are important and support both the businesses and yourself.

What is your favourite memory from your time at Hannes?

Great, smart colleagues and inspiring leaders from whom I learnt a lot and of course the fun team activities and summer and Christmas parties.

Hannes Snellman is cooperating with Päätös, a podcast focused on decision-making. What would you say is the most significant decision you have made when it comes to your professional life?

All business support roles have given me the possibility to work with, grow, and learn from smart and amazingly talented people — all with a bit of a different perspective to their business. Still, I would say the most significant decision for my professional life has been to join the Nordea group CEO office when the head office was moved from Stockholm to Helsinki in fall 2018. Organisational change can occasionally result in challenging and hard days but was totally worth it, and I appreciate all the experience and learnings of how a bank and a listed company operates, from day-to-day governance to policies, rules of procedures, responsibilities, and governing bodies.