Wiersholm strengthens its focus on the seafood industry with new recruitments

Erik Staurset Andresen joins Wiersholm as partner and Sigrid Ratvik Østvik as senior associate. Both will join the firm's seafood team and start on July 1, 2024.

“The seafood industry is one of Norway’s most important and fastest growing industries, and we strongly believe that the industry will continue to grow and develop in the coming years. The seafood industry is a strategically important focus area for Wiersholm. With the recruitment of Erik and Sigrid, who both have important specialist expertise and extensive experience from the industry, we now have a complete seafood team that can assist clients with all issues in the industry,” says Svein-Helge Hanken, partner at Wiersholm and head of the firm’s seafood team.

One of the foremost experts in aquaculture law

Erik has extensive experience from all aspects of fisheries and aquaculture law, both as a lawyer in the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries and later as a lawyer and advisor to the industry. His experience includes, among other things, contractual and regulatory issues for both land-based aquaculture, fjord-based aquaculture and exposed offshore aquaculture. He also assists companies in the fisheries sector. Staurset Andresen is considered one of the foremost experts and advisors in Norway in his field. He is a member of the Norwegian Bar Association’s expert committee on fisheries and aquaculture law and has been named one of Norway’s best lawyers in fisheries and aquaculture by the Norwegian Financial Daily lawyer survey and several international ranking agencies for legal services.

“Wiersholm’s focus on the seafood industry is forward-looking, with an increased presence in one of the seafood industry’s most important cities. With so many talented and friendly colleagues, I really look forward to getting started,” says Erik S. Andresen.

Erik comes from Volda in Møre og Romsdal, and will be based in Wiersholm’s Trondheim office, but will work for seafood clients throughout Norway.

One of the greatest talents in aquaculture law

Sigrid grew up in the fisheries and aquaculture industry in Frøya and Trondheim, and now has extensive experience both as an associate and senior associate in regulatory and contractual matters, and from the quality department of the second largest salmon farmer in the world, Salmar ASA. In 2021, she completed her master’s degree in law at the University of Oslo, where she specialised in aquaculture law and wrote her master’s thesis on the regulation of biosecurity cooperation in the aquaculture industry. Sigrid is a regular columnist for IntraFish, the world’s leading news source for seafood and aquaculture, and has been named one of Norway’s promising talents in several acknowledged rankings.

Sigrid will be affiliated with Wiersholm’s offices in both Oslo and Trondheim.

“I am very much looking forward to becoming part of Wiersholm’s seafood initiative and contributing to its further development together with committed and positive colleagues. Not least, I have great faith in the establishment of the office in Trøndelag and the proximity it provides to the activity that takes place along the coast”, says Sigrid R. Østvik.