Languages

English, Finnish, Swedish

Assistant

Jasse Tuunanen

Jesper Nevalainen

Partner IP & Tech

Languages

English, Finnish, Swedish

Assistant

Jasse Tuunanen

Jesper heads our Technology and Data Practice, and his practice focuses on commercial, technology, and data law and he has particular expertise in open source licensing issues. He advises both buyers and suppliers of information technology on a wide range of business-critical matters ranging from strategic advice, project management, contract drafting, negotiations, and disputes to re-engineering of distressed projects. In addition to outsourcing, his expertise also covers complex technology transactions, data protection and privacy, regulation of digitalisation, as well as non-contentious IP, software licensing, and compliance matters. He is also active in Hannes Snellman’s ESG Group.

Selected References

Hannes Snellman acted as counsel to Patria in relation to its data regulation project. Our team assisted Patria in navigating the EU’s new data regulations, particularly the Data Act and AI Act, to ensure compliance and leverage strategic advantages. The project involved a comprehensive review of Patria’s operations, an analysis of Patria’s alignment with the EU’s data regulations, and the development of a roadmap to ensure compliance. Contacts

Counsel to multinational player specializing in medical devices and healthcare.

Contacts

Counsel to Sibanye-Stillwater’s European operations with their GDPR implementation project, including drafting and implementing governance framework, privacy policies and processes, global transfers, and GDPR trainings.

Contacts

Parties

Sampo plc and Topdanmark A/S

Transaction

Sampo plc's recommended public exchange offer for the shares in Topdanmark A/S

Deal Value

DKK 33 billion

Role

Counsel to Sampo plc

Contacts

Parties

Cargotec Corporation and Kalmar Corporation

Transaction

Cargotec’s partial demerger and separation of Kalmar

Deal Value

Approx. EUR 2.0 billion (illustrative carve-out sales)

Role

Counsel to Cargotec Corporation and Kalmar Corporation

Contacts

Parties

SSAB

Transaction

Counsel to SSAB in its transformation project initiated with the decision to build a fossil-free mini-mill in Luleå, Sweden. Once completed, the new mini-mill will replace the current blast furnace-based steel production system, resulting in an estimated 7% reduction of the total CO2 emissions of Sweden. Our team has advised SSAB in e.g. the contracting structure of the project and negotiation of process equipment contracts for the project as lead counsel.

Deal Value

EUR 4.5 billion

Role

Counsel to SSAB

Contacts

Parties

SSAB

Transaction

Hannes Snellman advises SSAB in its pre-study phase project to build a Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plant in Mississippi, USA. The contemplated DRI plant would be based on HYBRIT® technology, which is the first fossil-free (hydrogen based) steelmaking technology in the world with virtually no carbon footprint. Once operational, the plant will be the first commercial-scale facility of its kind.

Deal value

Value not public

Role

Lead counsel to SSAB in e.g. the negotiation of an EPCM contract for the project

Contacts

Parties

Oy Matkahuolto Ab (Buyer), Smartmile (Seller)

Transaction

Oy Matkahuolto Ab's acquisition of Smartmile’s entire network of 148 parcel lockers in Finland.

Deal Value

Value not public

Role

Counsel to Oy Matkahuolto Ab

Contacts

Parties:

Oriola Corporation, HCLTech, SAP

Transaction:

Oriola’s investment in an ERP (enterprise resource planning) and warehouse management system.

Deal Value:

EUR 35 million

Role:

Counsel to Oriola

Contacts

  • Jesper Nevalainen

    Partner +358 40 582 7826 jesper.nevalainen@hannessnellman.com

  • Lasse Riski

    Specialist Partner +358 50 571 0749 lasse.riski@hannessnellman.com

Parties:

Nordea Bank Abp (JV shareholder), OP Osuuskunta (JV shareholder), Siirto Brand Oy (JV)

Transaction:

Expansion of the operations of Nordea Bank and OP’s 50/50 owned joint venture company, Siirto Brand Oy

Deal Value:

Value not public

Role:

Joint counsel to all parties

Contacts

  • Tuire Kuronen

    Partner +358 40 743 2313 tuire.kuronen@hannessnellman.com

  • Rebecca Osola

    Senior Legal Assistant +358 50 300 6172 rebecca.osola@hannessnellman.com

  • Emilia Reis

    Legal Assistant +358 40 527 5584 emilia.reis@hannessnellman.com

  • Jenni Heurlin

    Managing Associate +358 40 825 0405 jenni.heurlin@hannessnellman.com

  • Jesper Nevalainen

    Partner +358 40 582 7826 jesper.nevalainen@hannessnellman.com

  • Lasse Riski

    Specialist Partner +358 50 571 0749 lasse.riski@hannessnellman.com

  • Annika Grönholm

    Associate +358 44 253 5358 annika.gronholm@hannessnellman.com

Parties:

Finnlines Plc

Transaction: 

Counsel to Finnlines Plc in its ERP programme where Finnlines will transfer its finance operations to cloud-based Oracle Fusion ERP. 

Value:

Value not public

Role:

Counsel to Finnlines Plc

 

Contacts

Parties 

State of Finland and its Defence Forces

Transaction 

Counsel to the State of Finland and its Defence Forces in the project to procure a fighter aircraft system to replace its current fleet of 64 F/A-18 Hornet aircraft.

Deal value 

EUR 10 billion

Role 

Counsel to the State of Finland and its Defence Forces.

Contacts

Parties:

Gasgrid Finland Oy, Excelerate Energy

Transaction:

Gasgrid Finland Oy's chartering of an LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Unit from Excelerate Energy.

Deal Value:

EUR 460 million

Role:

Counsel to Gasgrid Finland Oy

Contacts

Counsel to Finnish Customs in the public procurement of bitcoin brokerage services. The assignment is related to the Finnish Government’s decision to sell the Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies seized by Finnish Customs and allocate a significant share of the additional revenue to support Ukraine in the current war.

Contacts

  • Outi Jousi

    Specialist Partner +358 40 563 7343 outi.jousi@hannessnellman.com

  • Jesper Nevalainen

    Partner +358 40 582 7826 jesper.nevalainen@hannessnellman.com

  • Anna Mäkinen

    Associate +358 50 494 9159 anna.makinen@hannessnellman.com

  • Jari Tukiainen

    Specialist Partner +358 40 518 1275 jari.tukiainen@hannessnellman.com

  • Antti Kuha

    Partner +358 40 775 7440 antti.kuha@hannessnellman.com

  • Stefan Stellato

    Managing Associate +358 50 356 5566 stefan.stellato@hannessnellman.com

Parties

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (Buyer), Pontos Oy, Taaleri Datacenter Ky, other sellers (Sellers), Ficolo Oy (Target)

Transaction

Sale of Ficolo Oy to Digital 9 Infrastructure plc

Deal Value

EUR 135 million

Role

Counsel to Pontos Oy, Taaleri Datacenter Ky, and other sellers

 

Contacts

  • Tuire Kuronen

    Partner +358 40 743 2313 tuire.kuronen@hannessnellman.com

  • Satu Kokko

    Senior Associate +358 40 838 9157 satu.kokko@hannessnellman.com

  • Jesper Nevalainen

    Partner +358 40 582 7826 jesper.nevalainen@hannessnellman.com

  • Anna Nyberg

    Senior Associate +358 41 501 9395 anna.nyberg@hannessnellman.com

  • Julia Ranta

    Senior Associate +358 50 468 8309 julia.ranta@hannessnellman.com

  • Mikko Huimala

    Partner +358 44 530 0753 mikko.huimala@hannessnellman.com

Parties 

IK Partners (Buyer), Intera Fund II Ky, Intera Fund III Ky, management and other minority shareholders (Sellers), Renta Group Oy (Target)

Transaction 

Intera Partners’ sale of Renta Group Oy to IK Partners

Deal Value 

Value not public

Role

Counsel to Intera Partners

Contacts

Parties 

Angel Pond Holdings Corporation, MariaDB Corporation Ab

Transaction 

Combination of Angel Pond Holdings Corporation and MariaDB Corporation Ab by way of a domestication merger and cross-border merger, and related transactions

Deal Value 

USD 672 million (implied enterprise value of the combined company)

Role

Finnish counsel to Angel Pond Holdings Corporation

Contacts

Parties
Lassila & Tikanoja plc (JV shareholder), Neova Oy (JV shareholder), L&T Biowatti Oy (joint venture company)

Transaction
Counsel to Lassila & Tikanoja plc, a service company that is putting the circular economy into practice, in creating a joint venture with Neova Oy consolidating the parties’ energy wood businesses in Finland and Estonia. The joint venture’s turnover is approximately EUR 100 million and it employs approximately 100 employees.

Deal Value
Not disclosed

Role
Legal counsel to L&T plc

Contacts

Parties 

NEP Group, Inc. (a Carlyle Group portfolio company), Bright Group Oy (funds managed by CapMan Buyout)

Transaction 

Counsel to global event technology leader NEP Group, Inc., a Carlyle Group portfolio company, in the acquisition of Bright Group, a 360 supplier of live event services in Northern Europe with presence in Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

Deal Value 

Value not public

Role

Counsel to NEP Group, Inc. (a Carlyle Group portfolio company)

Contacts

Parties

Tosibox Oy, Nexit Ventures and its partner 3TS Capital Partners

Transaction

Counsel to Tosibox Oy, a provider of operational technology networking platforms for enterprises and organisations, in raising new equity funding from Nexit Ventures and its partner 3TS Capital Partners.

Deal Value

EUR 5 million

Role

Counsel to Tosibox Oy

 

Contacts

Parties 

Landis+Gyr (Buyer), Telia Finland (Seller), Telia AMR Business (Target)

Transaction 

Telia Finland’s sale of Telia AMR Business to Landis+Gyr

Deal Value 

Value not public

Role

Counsel to Telia Finland (Seller)

Contacts

Parties

Amazon (Buyer), Umbra (Target)

Transaction

The acquisition of Umbra by Amazon. 

Deal Value

Value not public

Role

Counsel to Umbra

Contacts

Parties 

Oy Linde Gas Ab (Buyer), Neste Markkinointi Oy (Seller), Neste’s cylinder gas business and stake in Oy Innogas Ab (Targets)

Transaction 

Oy Linde Gas Ab’s acquisition of Neste Markkinointi Oy’s cylinder gas business and Neste Markkinointi Oy's stake in Oy Innogas Ab, a provider of LPG cylinder filling, requalification and logistics services.

Value

Value not public

Role 

Counsel to Oy Linde Gas Ab

Contacts

Counsel to a global corporation in parallel proceedings before the Helsinki District Court in relation to a license agreement and public procurement rules.

Contacts

Parties

Sanoma Media Finland Oy (Seller), Schibsted (buyer), Oikotie Ltd (target)

Transaction

The sale of Sanoma’s online classifieds business Oikotie to Schibsted

Deal value

EUR 185 million

Role

Counsel to Sanoma Group

Core team

Riikka Rannikko, Jesper Nevalainen, Mikko Huimala, Agda Vähä-Piikkö, Jenni Heurlin, Anton Pirinen

Contacts

Parties

Sanoma Group (Buyer), Alma Media Corporation (Seller), Alma Media Kustannus Oy and Alma Manu Oy (Targets)

Transaction

Sanoma Group’s acquisition of Alma Media’s regional news media business

Deal Value

EUR 115 million (announced enterprise value)

Role

Counsel to Sanoma Group

Contacts

Rankings

  • Clients say: "Jesper Nevalainen is a very professional and highly skilled TMT lawyer. He is proactive and solution oriented and provided excellent legal advice.", "Jesper Nevalainen keeps everything making sense.", TMT, Legal 500, 2025
  • Clients say: "Jesper Nevalainen is very competent, easygoing and also understands the value for the client.", "Jesper Nevalainen is proactive and gives pragmatic advice, quickly understands what we need and is able to safeguard our interests without going into unnecessary details. He is solution-oriented.", "Jesper Nevalainen is easy to work with and provides good results.", "Jesper Nevalainen is a great individual.", "Jesper Nevalainen has always been able to identify the key issues and questions related to our assignments and resolve them excellently.", TMT, Chambers Europe, 2025
  • Jesper Nevalainen the Only Finn Recognised as a Global Elite Thought Leader in Information Technology by Lexology/Who’s Who Legal 2025
  • Leading Individual, TMT, Legal 500, 2024
  • Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2023 edition
  • Recognised among the World’s highest ranked Data Lawyers in the Who’s Who Legal Data 2021 edition
  • Ranked as 2020 exclusive winner of Client Choice’s Data Privacy & Protection category in Finland
  • “Jesper is our main partner who we rely on especially for any commercial awareness and overall coordination.” Chambers Europe, 2024
  • "Jesper Nevalainen is very diligent, practical and proactive. Jesper Nevalainen is a business-minded and smart lawyer with a good approach to client service. Jesper Nevalainen is very skilled, provides relevant and timely advice, and has a great understanding of the drivers of our business.", TMT, Chambers Europe, 2023
  • Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards 2023: Highly Commended. “The firm helped Finnish customs authorities to conduct a public auction of bitcoin, then worth about €70mn, seized from illegal drug dealers. Funds of about $47mn raised by sale in 2022 were donated to the Ukrainian government.”
  • "Jesper Nevalainen has strong experience in TMT agreements. He gives good guidance to his customers.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
  • "Team lead Jesper Nevalainen, besides having excellent talent within his area of expertise, has the eye for pragmatic and customer-oriented approach. It is enjoyable to work with him.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
  • "Jesper Nevalainen is an experienced lawyer with a practical and forward-looking mindset.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
  • 'Clients say: "He is extremely talented and enjoyable to work with."', TMT, Chambers Europe, 2022
  • Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2021 edition
  • "Jesper Nevalainen is a very pleasant person to work with. He has a broad knowledge of the legal framework, industry practices and suppliers’ most common legal terms and arguments.", TMT, Legal 500, 2021
  • 'According to one client, Jesper Nevalainen "has the exceptional ability to provide clear and precise legal advice, even in the most difficult negotiations. He can create and implement effective negotiation strategies and adapt and modify the selected tactics if the situation so demands." ', TMT, Chambers Europe, 2021
  • "Jesper Nevalainen is quick to respond and has a deep understanding of our business challenges The advice and legal recommendations he provides are based on applicable law and adapted to our business requirements/challenges." Another client says that "Outi Jousi and Jesper Nevalainen worked as a team in our assignment. Their high quality performance is based on their high level expertise. They are experts in various kinds of legal technological challenges. We can trust that every significant detail will be thoroughly considered and solved.", TMT, Legal 500, 2020
  • 'Clients praise his skills and outside-the-box thinking, with one particularly endorsing his "great commercial awareness."', TMT, Chambers Europe 2020
  • Recognised among the World’s highest-ranked Data Lawyers in the Who’s Who Legal Data 2020 edition
  • "Clients praise Nevalainen's tremendous assistance.", TMT, Legal 500, 2019
  • Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2019 edition
  • Ranked among the World’s Leading Data Lawyers in the Information Technology category of Who’s Who Legal Data 2019 edition
  • 'Interviewees value that he provides “good client service and technical knowledge.”', TMT, Chambers Europe 2018
  • Financial Times Innovative Lawyers’ Awards 2017: Commended*
  • Jesper Nevalainen is "commercially minded, authoritative and a pleasant man to work with, who is invaluable when difficult advice is needed quickly in pressurised scenarios", TMT, Chambers Europe 2017
  • Ranked as a leading TMT practitioner several times by all notable legal directories (Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal and Best Lawyers)

Memberships and Positions of Trust

  • Member of the Finnish Bar Association
  • Officer in the Technology Law Committee of the International Bar Association
  • Member of ITechLaw
  • Member of the Finnish IT Law Association (Member of the Board 2008–2012, Secretary of the Board 2009–2010, Chairman of the Board 2011–2012)
  • Member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

Professional Background

  • Partner, Hannes Snellman, 2017–
  • Bird & Bird Attorneys Ltd, 2006–2017
  • Tecnotree Corporation, 2006
  • Roschier Attorneys Ltd, 2004–2006

Education

  • Master of Laws, University of Helsinki, 2004

Publications

  • Co-author of OneTrust DataGuidance – Finland Whistleblowing, 2025
  • Co-author of OneTrust DataGuidance – Finland Data Protection Overview, 2025
  • Co-author of the Finnish article in Lexology Panoramic: Outsourcing 2024