SVW is proud to maintain its position as a leading maritime lawfirm. The 6 years from our merger have been a success and the firm has experienced a steep growth and expanded its national and international position across disciplines. From the shipping side we are very fortunate to maintain top international rankings such as Tier 1 in both Maritime Law, Banking & Finance (including Ship Financing) and Offshore Construction/Shipbuilding in the publication Legal500 with 3 partners ranked as “Leading Individuals”. We are also fortunate to be able to rely on the experience of other strong teams within the firm.
In a market where digitalisation is an important focus, SVW offers Norway’s leading team within IP and technology. Combined with our strong shipping team, we have the best possible fundament to assist our clients into the new future. We have already gained valuable experience from working as legal advisors on several digitalisation projects, including the first globally commercial autonomous container vessel, “Yara Birkeland”.
SVW has also the last years strengthened the corporate and M&A team with significant new lateral hires, and this team has been involved in several large, public and non-public, transactions and listings the last year.
We have, over the last years, seen and participated in several large restructurings within the offshore sector in Norway. There is still work to be done. Such processes reveal new challenges. The international ship finance community was taken by surprise by the OSX 3 case in Brazil. Maybe new solutions can be found also within the shipping community to avoid such insecurity in the future. Our Aviation experts (who also are part of the Shipping team) bring with them ideas from a more uniformed industry. Our international work for various governments to lay the legislative framework in respect of oil and gas development has also revealed challenges applicable to registration of floating units. Our clients’ venturing into LNG shipping has given the firm the exposure and opportunity to align our shipping practice with this exciting and growing segment. You will find more information about these issues (and more) in this edition of our Maritime Newsletter.
We hope those of you who are able to attend Nor-Shipping will have a great week, and hopefully Oslo will show us its best side, so that we can enjoy warm evenings by the fjord, in the company of friends and colleagues.