Tax law led the way

What does platonic love of tax law look like in person?

A good guess is the 1.96-metre-tall former professional footballer Christian Skaarup Nissen. Already at law school, there was something about the complex area of tax law that fascinated him.

“I remember at one point I had a lecturer who started the semester by saying that the Tax Law II course was the most difficult subject at law school, so he thought it was foolish that we were sitting there at all. We laughed a bit, but he was right. It was difficult. But for me, that’s also what made it fun. Only four of the 20 students in the class sat the exam. The rest didn’t feel ready. Fortunately, I passed with a good result.”

Working with tax law taps into a fundamental sense of justice, says Christian Skaarup Nissen.

“As a citizen or business in this country, you shouldn’t automatically accept that just because the tax authorities have a certain opinion, you should necessarily be taxed in a certain way. Their opinion can be challenged, and I find a personal motivation in doing so.”

Closer to the team

Christian Skaarup Nissen started at the firm as a law student in 2018 and in continued on in 2020 as an assistant attorney in the Aarhus office’s M&A practice group. To be closer to Gorrissen Federspiel’s tax team, Christian Skaarup Nissen moved to Copenhagen in 2022.

“Even though it’s become super easy to organise Teams meetings with colleagues across Aarhus and Copenhagen, it just gives a different kind of interaction when you can pop your head in the door and ask what someone thinks about this or that. As an assistant attorney, you often need to pop your head in the door, so we agreed that it would be best if I came to Copenhagen. It’s been great – I’ve a lot of friends over here and I’ve also got a girlfriend.”

As good as it gets

Christian Skaarup Nissen is from Southern Jutland and therefore doesn’t like to brag. But he admits that he gets a big kick out of being the best. Both on the football field and in practicing law.

“When I played football, making a lot of money was never what drove me. It was about improving my skills. Be the guy who never lost the ball in training. Be the guy who could score the most goals, or whatever it might be. It’s the same thing that drives me in practicing law. I’m extremely focused on making sure that what I deliver internally and externally is the best it can possibly be,” he concludes.