Doctoral Conferment of Doctor of Laws Katja Perätalo and Doctor of Laws Vilhelm Schröder

Hannes Snellman’s attorneys, Specialist Partner, Doctor of Laws, M. Sc. (Tech.) Katja Perätalo and Counsel, Doctor of Laws Vilhelm Schröder were conferred in the XI Conferment Ceremony of the Faculty of Law on 16 June at the University of Helsinki.

The Conferment is a traditional three-day event, the finest in the academic world, celebrating the academic achievements of the promovendus. Only by being conferred in the conferment ceremony, doctors receive the right from the faculty to wear the marks of their academic rank: the doctoral hat in the faculty's colour and the doctoral sword. Today’s conferment was the 11^th in the tradition of Faculty of Law in Finland, the first conferment dating back to year 1650 in Turku. In deviation to many other faculties, all conferments by the Faculty of Law have been exclusively for doctors.

Katja Perätalo received her Doctor of Laws degree at the University of Helsinki in 2020. Her dissertation within law of obligations addresses liability relations between the parties of construction projects falling on the interface between tort and contract law. At Hannes Snellman, Katja advises clients on large-scale industrial construction projects, capturing all phases from contract negotiations to implementation and navigating through strategic issues with contentious interfaces during and after execution. Katja has particular expertise in the contracting regime within different types of renewable energy projects and production plants.

Vilhelm Schröder received his Doctor of Laws degree at the University of Helsinki in 2022. His dissertation addresses trade secret protection in European patent litigation. At Hannes Snellman, Vilhelm advises clients in commercial disputes with a particular focus on intellectual property matters. He has significant experience from both civil and administrative litigation as well as preliminary injunction proceedings and enforcement.