My name is Sofia and I have been a lawyer in Scandinavia since 2006. I have always been curious to learn and listen to others and had a creative streak that came to blossom at law school. Why is that, you ask? How could law school inspire creativity? Read on and I’ll tell you.
My story starts in Borås, a city in western Sweden that stands out for its entrepreneurial spirit that turned the textile crisis of the 1970s into modern-day success in design and e-commerce. Growing up with a family business (real estate), many conversations around the kitchen table and in the summer cottage focused on developing what was good, taking care of customer relationships, and improving what worked less well. I have great memories thinking of my grandfather’s words on good business:
“The most important thing is to make a decision (based on what is known). If it later turns out that it was the wrong decision, well, then make a new decision on better information.”
Why then did I choose to go to law school? Thinking of it, a reasonable choice with my family background could have been to study business or finance and go into the business world earlier than I did. I chose law, and I still chose to practice law every day, to help decision-makers to improve their business, to let them create better products for their customers, which translates into the better company culture and an improved society. I was motivated in law school to be the person to explain the solutions to common business issues, particularly as the law was presented from a highly analytical, inward-looking and problematic perspective. I found my passion early – business law and technology law. I was intrigued by the vast possibilities to shape and influence business and the everyday situation for businesses taking a practical and creative approach to applying business law. A stark contrast to the legal minutia of e.g. real estate, public administration law or the more deterrent areas of the law as criminal law.
My entrepreneurial spirit took me through law school to the Chalmers University of Technology, where I earned a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship in IT & Communications. After finishing at the top of my class, I landed an opportunity as an in-house legal counsel at Nokia Inc. While in Nokia’s global headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, I encountered a global and creative mindset that was widely inspiring. Working alongside engineers, developers, business developers and data scientist was a fantastic experience. I was fortunate to work with several high achieving women leaders (Lucy, Kaisu, Catherine) in the field of global Intellectual Property and Privacy.
Back at work in Sweden, I continued serving decision-makers in technology-driven companies. During the years 2007 – 2009, I worked as an in-house lawyer for Chalmers University of Technology, Sahlgrenska Science Park and the University of Gothenburg. I provided legal advice to the researchers, their technology startups, large joint ventures between academica, industry and government. It could be anything from leading complex collaborations between academia and industry, negotiating license agreements for life science or nano coated technologies, managing M&A at the exit of a technology venture and research projects, reviewing various technology transfer agreements and corporate agreements, and assisting the management of SMEs developing their IP strategy.
In 2009 I served as a junior judge at the Gothenburg District Court, where I further trained as a notary and assisted judges with analysis, administration and preparation of various documents, decisions and rulings in financial disputes, family law, financial crime, copyright infringement cases and criminal cases. I held my own negotiations in bankruptcy, traffic offences and parking cases, as well as consumer related disputes between companies and individuals.
I then moved to Stockholm and worked as an associate lawyer and later Advokat at the international law firm of Baker McKenzie. My practice focused on commercial agreements, copyright, internet law and e-commerce. I also advised in M&A and public procurement. My work for online media clients let me build my international network while setting up and managing global launches and scaling up of various SaaS and online classifieds concepts across the Nordic, the EU, northern Africa, Southeast Asia and South America.
In 2014 – 2015, I worked as as an Advokat/Lawyer and business area manager for Synch Advokat, where I led a major project that involved developing a business model to offer business law services via a web portal. I also worked as a lawyer and advised startups to larger companies in internet law, e-commerce, data privacy and commercial agreements. My team’s efforts resulted in two nominations in the industry association The Lawyer for “Best Use of Digital Client Facing Media” and “Best Blended Delivery Model”.
During my years in the legal industry, I became increasingly interested in how legal advice could work better for the people actually making the decisions.
Clients rarely need legal analysis in isolation. They need to understand what matters, how to prioritise and what a legal or regulatory issue means for the product, transaction or business decision in front of them.
When I founded Sharp Cookie Advisors in 2015, I returned to the principles I had grown up with in a family business and to what I had learned working alongside engineers, entrepreneurs, executives and lawyers. I wanted to build a specialist law firm around client value, integrity and practical legal judgement – close to both the technology and the business.
That underlying idea has remained remarkably consistent. What has changed is the world in which our clients operate.
Today, our work spans AI and data, cybersecurity, cloud and SaaS, Digital Health, technology transactions, privacy governance and regulatory matters. We advise on questions ranging from product development and launch to enterprise customer negotiations, regulatory proceedings and international expansion.
The questions have become more complex, but the principle remains the same: legal advice works best when it understands the technology, the business and the decisions the client actually needs to make.
Sharp Cookie Advisors was founded to provide relevant and actionable legal advice. That remains our purpose today.
