Next stop: Supreme Court

After a complex trial case and three days of main hearing, a loss statement counting over 1,500 pages of documents and a convincing execution, attorney Line Gritt Boel Jensen was admitted to appear before the Danish High Courts.

When Line Gritt Boel Jensen was younger, she loved being in the spotlight. She performed in musicals, was in bands and generally liked to perform in front of others. It may seem a bit irrelevant when your business card reads “attorney” today, but that’s not the case at all, she says.

“To put it somewhat simplistically, there are probably two types of attorneys. Those who prefer to sit in the engine room and work behind the screen and those who like to go to court and argue in front of a panel of judges. I belong to the latter category, which is why I participated in three different mock trials in court during my studies. I enjoy litigating, thinking about how to get my message across and trying to focus the judges’ attention on what I think is most important. It gives me a kick.”

30-centimetre-high loss statement

Line Gritt Boel Jensen needed that kick when, in 2022, she wanted to be admitted to appear before the Danish High Courts by conducting an unusually complex and document-heavy trial case. Line conducted the case on behalf of a group of minority owners against a majority owner of a company, where the minority owners believed that the majority owner had favoured himself and his family in the management of the company’s funds.

“What made the case complex was that there was a comprehensive loss statement of over 1,500 pages accounting documents including bank statements down to even a few hundred kroner. The exhibits covered this many pages,” says Line Gritt Boel

Jensen, measuring out 25-30 centimetres with her hands. “Three days were scheduled for the main hearing, and it was a tough affair. The case meant a lot to the clients on both sides of the table, so it was a battle to the finish.”

During the subsequent evaluation, the judges made no secret of the fact that they had great respect for Line Gritt Boel Jensen’s choice of this case as her trial case because of its complexity and scope.

“They said straight away that I had passed, but then they added that they had considered whether my performance could exceptionally count for two trial cases – and thus admitting me to appear before the High Courts – and they had decided that it could.

I was completely stunned and very happy at the same time. I couldn’t believe it,” says Line Gritt Boel Jensen and says she even received praise from the other party’s client – and flowers and chocolate from her own.

Yellow post-it notes in the Supreme Court

Ever since her studies, it has been a clear ambition for Line Gritt Boel Jensen to obtain the right to appear before the High Courts and the Supreme Court. Therefore, it also frustrated her when her former university classmates in smaller law firms obtained their right to appear before the High Courts before she did.

“That’s the nature of working in a large law firm like Gorrissen Federspiel, where High Court cases are often so comprehensive that they are conducted by the firm’s partners. In addition, the focus is always on the client, and when there’s a possibility of a good settlement, it doesn’t matter, of course, that my trial cases have been cancelled at the same time. That’s also why I was so happy when I finally succeeded,” says Line Gritt Boel Jensen and explains that her next goal is to obtain the right to appear before the Supreme Court.

“On several occasions I’ve been with my superiors in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, where I passed on little post-it notes with input along the way. It’s extremely frustrating to know a case inside out but not be allowed to follow it through to the end. Therefore, it’s also a clear ambition to obtain the right to appear before the Supreme Court.”

Line Gritt Boel Jensen understands that her professional objectives are also linked to the personal ones.

“Of course, I want to send a signal to the outside world and to my clients that I’m a good litigator. Being admitted to appear before the High Court testifies to that now, and being admitted to appear before the Supreme Court will do so even more.”

In addition to Line Gritt Boel Jensen, Nina Simoni Vestergaard Pedersen and Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe from Gorrissen Federspiel were admitted to appear before the High Courts in 2022.