We are a knowledge-based company. As leading commercial lawyers, our knowledge and experience are our key assets and most valuable and sustainable contribution to businesses and society. It is important to us to use our specialist competence to create value for society outside of our client engagements. We contribute to development of tomorrow’s lawyers and leaders through teaching, contribution in professional forums, and through conferences, seminars and in-house courses.
To contribute to educating tomorrow’s lawyers and leaders, Wiersholm lawyers frequently lecture at universities and colleges, including the University of Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and BI Norwegian Business School. We also make a contribution through a mentor scheme for law students at the University of Oslo. Every year we teach at several legal forums such as JUS (Lawyers’ Education Centre), The Norwegian Bar Association and JUC Norway, at universities, through private tutoring of students and we participate as speakers at external seminars and conferences.
In the fall of 2023, Wiersholm – together with the law firm Thommessen – entered into a collaboration with the Norwegian Business School (BI), in connection with the start-up of the school’s full-fledged professional program in law. The collaboration means, among other things, that we will contribute with teaching and case assignments for the students.
Through our trainee programme, students receive a unique opportunity to introduce themselves to the firm and get to know our people. During the 4–5-week practice period, the trainee is attached to a market group, in which they are given the opportunity to gain industry knowledge (contextual understanding), and to a practice group (professional expertise). The trainees have the opportunity to acquire a practical approach to law and get to know Wiersholm as a workplace, and we have the opportunity to meet potential employees. Through our partnership with Save the Children, we also offer a few students the opportunity to be a “Responsible Business Trainee”. This scheme provides the trainees with both business law experience at Wiersholm and human rights work for Save the Children Norway. In collaboration with DNV (Det Norske Veritas), we also offer students the opportunity to become an Energy Transition Trainee. In this trainee programme, the students get an interdisciplinary insight into what it is like to work as an external lawyer in a large business law firm, in-house lawyer at DNV and international experience from Norton Rose Fulbright in London.
Read more about our trainee programs here.
On an annual basis, we host Wiersholm Summer School, an intensive course and workweek for selected students, during which they are introduced to skills important to a business lawyer that they will not learn at the university. The participants are selected based on an application and an interview process.
At Wiersholm Summer School, the students are given legal training and challenging tasks where they can test themselves both as transaction lawyers and dispute resolution lawyers. In addition, the students take part in teambuilding exercises and social activities during the evenings. Experienced Wiersholm lawyers and partners hold lectures on topics such as negotiation techniques, due diligence and share purchase agreements, which prepare the students for the completion of the “negotiation case”. Furthermore, the students get the opportunity to participate in a litigation exercise with close follow-up and guidance by our skilled dispute resolution lawyers. One of the major benefits of the Wiersholm Summer School is also the students’ opportunity to network with students from other universities, as well as Wiersholm employees.
Read more about Wiersholm Summer School here.
Throughout the year, we share our knowledge with our peers in different foras and contribute to increase businesses’ competence by arranging seminars and conferences in multiple legal areas. Every year, we host seven conferences and a large number of seminars, sharing our legal competence in various fields, the most prominent being Oslo Compliance Forum and Nordic Buy Out Forum.
Wiersholm produces and publishes three different podcast-concepts – each developed to target specific target groups with the aim to enlighten and inform.
Every year, we publish and distribute more than 100 newsletters about various legal subjects and current events on our website wiersholm.no. These newsletters are also distributed to thousands of subscribers and shared with our network on LinkedIn.
Read our latest newsletters here.
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