This interview is part of the FBCC Member Series, where we introduce our member companies to the network. This time we interviewed Olli Oksman, the Managing Director at our Corporate Member Kalliolaw.
Kalliolaw, a firm named after its founding partner Jukka Kallio, is a modern business law firm that helps its clients in changing the business environment. With offices in London, Helsinki, and Turku, the company is well placed to help international businesses with their Finnish business operations and investments in Finland.
“For a law firm, we are pretty down-to-earth and have a flat hierarchy. Lawyers may seem a bit dry but our get-togethers can actually be quite good fun”, says Mr Oksman. “We do weekend getaways together every year. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go abroad this year, so we had to arrange our get-together in Finland. It was a fun trip.”
Kalliolaw just had its 20th anniversary. “We hope to celebrate this with our clients and friends once the situation allows.”
Because of the pandemic, all of the lawyers at Kalliolaw were home-based during the spring and summer. “At the moment it is more hybrid: most our lawyers continue to work from home significant part of their time but as many prefer to work from the office part of the time, we have accommodated this.” Practically all of the meetings and negotiations now take place online as do all of the conferences and industry events. The pandemic has obviously had an impact on clients’ businesses and the kind of things the firm has been doing. “Over the spring and summer, there was not much activity on the M&A front. Since the summer, things have picked up a bit, starting with bridge financing. This has been compensated by increased activity in other fronts, especially HR lawyers have been busy. While obviously some business sectors have been suffering, there are those sectors that have been rather benefiting from the situation, such as gaming companies.”
Mr Oksman’s number one tip for working from home is to stretch regularly.
For Kalliolaw, the biggest benefit of being part of the FBCC network is the great connections made.