hai Superman Norwegian Geir Sviggum has a flying career with the Norwegian Law firm Wikborg Rein. Only 35 years old, Sviggum has been a partner at the firm for the last two years and he now runs the Shanghai office. A competitive gene and hard work has led him to the top. By Dennis Krog
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eir Sviggum is not a person who takes breaks – yes, holidays of course, but besides that his whole life has been one big competition, trying to make it to the top, a top he reached in 2010, when he at the very young age of 33 became partner at Wikborg Rein. He had then already been the boss of the company’s Shanghai office for two years. “Yes, I guess I have had a quick career,” says Geir Sviggum, when he is forced to look back at his life, something he hasn’t done much, looking back that is. We meet the Norwegian in the offices of Wikborg Rein, the largest Scandinavian law firm in Asia. On the 19th floor of the Hong Kong New World tower office building in Shanghai, Geir Sviggum is working out of his corner office. He is alone this afternoon as everybody else is enjoying a national holiday, but for Geir Sviggum this national holiday is reserved for work.
Competing all his life Geir Sviggum grew up in the small city of Horten in Norway, where he lived together with his mother as well as a sister and a brother, and already as a young boy the Norwegian showed that he wanted to move forward in life. Having been extremely active in sports growing up, he became part of the Norwegian full contact karate team in his late teens. “I guess it is fair to say I am competitive and restless in nature. I believe I started walking at a rather young age,” smiles Geir Sviggum who still is active in sports, still doing martial arts and running amongst other things. A lot of the competing was against his brother and that brotherly feud even came to a test in North Korea where his brother came along with Geir Sviggum and his wife.
”In North Korea we stayed at a 200 meter high hotel. At 8pm the guards locked us in at the hotel. We asked if we could run the stairs. They had to ask their bosses, but at the end the run up the stairs was allowed. The guards couldn’t believe it as they watched two stupid foreigners running up the stairs,” Sviggum laughs. While Geir Sviggum has never stopped competing, time in his youth was divided between school and sports, and after finishing the military, where he was an officer in the King’s Guard, Geir Sviggum moved to Bergen where he studied law.
The Quick Steps at Wikborg Rein In 2003 Geir Sviggum finished law school and at the same time started working for Wikborg Rein in Bergen. “The four biggest law firms in Norway are somewhat similar - domestically, but I started in Wikborg Rein because their international activities and presence is unique. I never knew if I would get to work abroad, but I wanted to have the opportunity,” says Sviggum. In 2008 Sviggum accepted the challenge of moving to Shanghai and in December 2009 he was appointed partner at the firm. The firm’s Shanghai office, which previously mainly assisted Scandinavian companies in opening up businesses in China, has developed into an award-winning international practice with a large international portfolio. Wikborg Rein was ranked by Asian Legal Business (ALB) among Asia’s 30 fastest growing law firms in 2010 and was honored by the prestigious Lloyds’ List Maritime Law Firm of the Year award in 2011. “For me personally; I am the legal representative of the firm in China, which means that I am the responsible figurehead towards Chinese authorities. I have the ex-
ternal responsibility and I have the internal administrative responsibility. I further normally engage heavily in the office’s bigger cases,” says Geir Sviggum explaining his role in the company. In addition to the prices awarded to Wikborg Rein over the past few years, Geir Sviggum personally ended up on a prestigious list in 2011.
Most influential Lawyers in Asia Every year Asian Legal Business (ALB) makes a ranking of the 100 most influential lawyers in Asia, and in 2011 a somewhat surprised Geir Sviggum was the first Scandinavian to figure on the Asian Legal Business ‘Hot 100 list’. “At the time I had never heard about the ranking, but I was happy to end up in the leader’s category, which only has 20 people on the list. The ranking has given a lot of attention, and in China awards are important. Such awards add to the firm’s already strong credibility in Asia,” says Geir Sviggum. But even though it seems like Geir Sviggum is already on the top of the mountain at Wikborg Rein, Sviggum denies being out of challenges in the Norwegian company. “In some businesses, you are over the top when you are 35 years old. That is not the case for the legal business. Our heaviest partners are in their 50s and 60s, and among the other partners I am still a junior. I am still learning every day. I will lose my enthusiasm if I am not learning, but I don’t see that happening within this firm or in this business,” says Geir Sviggum and adds: “I don’t see any reason to go to another law firm. I am proud to be part of this unique Norwegian success story. If I was to do something else it would be in a total different business, and I have no agenda in that way, I am just fine where I am.” June 2012 • ScandAsia.China 13