Expertise

The Commercial Real Estate team offers a wide range of specialized expertise provided by lawyers with extensive experience of transactional activities. The team provides services to investors and property buyers, as well as to property owners and developers, in connection with buying and selling real estate companies, due diligence, structuring and restructuring. They also offer advice in collaboration with the Corporate, Tax & VAT team on any and all tax and VAT issues arising from the purchase, conversion or sale of commercial real estate, and transactions. We also draw up leases and renewals, and help terminate leases.

The Construction team covers the entire building and construction sector, providing services ranging from large-scale commercial and residential projects to construction projects and minor construction issues. The team has comprehensive experience, providing assistance with all stages of projects, including tender processes, the drafting of contracts, negotiations, execution, amendments and final settlements, as well as dispute resolution.

Bing Hodneland’s Corporate Law and Transactions team assists clients with most corporate law issues, e.g. choice of company form, choice of transaction model, share purchases and sales, business transfers, due diligence, shareholder agreements, shareholder disputes, capital changes, mergers/demergers and cross-border transactions. The team offers services to companies, foundations, nonprofits, board members, investors and private individuals.

Bing Hodneland’s Dispute Resolution team has considerable experience of and expertise in the resolution of disputes, both inside and outside the courtroom.
When a dispute arises, it is often practical to seek advice early on in the process in order to determine the client’s legal position, choose a strategy and thus ensure an opportunity for resolving the dispute as early as possible, minimizing the use of time and resources. It is often best to agree on a solution outside the courtroom. Negotiations, mediation or other dispute resolution mechanisms may be viable options.

The Esports & Gaming team offers help with the commercial operation of esports activities. Among other things, the team is equipped to handle the legal aspects of setting up companies, securing advertising and sponsorship agreements, managing brands and sports rights, and organizing events, competitions, etc. This team of specialists also covers sports law, including agreements with teams and players, agreements regarding the development of games and apps, and agreements for the delivery of VR services, as well as e-commerce, gambling, media and broadcasting, and rights clearance.

The Entertainment team provides tailor-made legal and commercial advice to Norwegian and international players and trade organizations in the fields of music, film/TV, theatre, gaming, advertising, events and the stage. The Entertainment team cooperates closely with prominent organizations abroad, regularly handling cases involving cross-border elements.

The Events team manages all the legal aspects of the organization of events. The team’s purview includes help with booking artists, drafting crew contracts and agreements for equipment rental, assistance with sponsorship agreements and questions about promotion and marketing, including on social media. If an organizer intends to record or live-stream an event, the team can handle rights clearance issues and help put the necessary agreements in place.

The Film & TV team can guide its clients through all manner of production activities related to the production of e.g. dramas, reality, documentaries, sports broadcasts, etc. The team’s Film & TV lawyers can facilitate agreements with ordering platforms, international streaming services and format owners, as well as with creators and performers, including scriptwriters, directors, composers and actors, and with crew, participants and hosts. They can also assist with rights clearance and the delivery of chain of title.

To the best of our knowledge, our team is only one in Norway that specializes in ground leases. The team can provide advice to private individuals and to companies in connection with the surrender, adjustment or winding-up of ground leases, offering representation to lessees and lessors alike. The team has exact knowledge of economics, valuation and interest rate trends. In connection with the sale of businesses and development projects, many of which involve ground leases, the team can offer expertise that safeguards the vital interests and foreign investors and buyers.

The Housing Law team is equipped to help developers, business managers, cooperative building associations, companies and private individuals with all aspects of owning, establishing, operating and developing condominium associations, cooperative housing associations, housing cooperatives with limited liability, etc. Advisory services related to housing law are multi-faceted, drawing on expertise from other fields of law and Bing Hodneland’s Real Estate and Construction teams. The Housing Law team’s experience of practical challenges associated with the operation of existing housing cooperatives is instrumental for establishing new organizations as well as for reorganizing existing ones. Typical problems include the distribution of shared costs, upcoming or completed maintenance projects, expansion or changes inside or outside existing buildings, and amendments to articles of association.

We provide legal assistance in intellectual property law, with particular emphasis on copyright, trademarks and domain names. We prepare license agreements, transfer agreements and other agreements that include copyright and other intellectual property rights, and we can assist with the protection of intellectual property rights in the form of registration of trademarks, designs, patents and domain names. We prepare IPR strategies, and follow up on infringements of intellectual property rights. We handle disputes before the Swedish Patent Office, the Board of Appeal for Industrial Rights, the Board of Appeal for Domains, WIPO and the courts.

The IT, Tech & Compliance team provides tailor-made legal and commercial advice to Norwegian and international businesses on ICT law and ICT agreements, public ICT procurements, data security and new technology, as well as on compliance in fields such as data protection.

Bing Hodneland has comprehensive experience of and expertise in the field of labour law. This service area is used by a wide variety of business sectors. Our client base includes trade unions, employers and employees alike, and we help them navigate all manner of labour-related issues. The Labour Law team’s combination of specialist expertise and understanding of the industry in question puts it in a unique position for reaching optimal solutions.

The Music team helps clients that utilize music in their products and services. The team provides services related to the clearance and licensing of music rights for all manner of uses, e.g. in film, TV, podcasts, games, apps and other media productions. The team can also help with the clearance of music rights for concerts and events, and for streaming and recording such events, on customer premises, on public and other modes of transportation, and with other digital products and services offered by the enterprise.

Bing Hodneland’s public acquisitions team provides legal assistance in all phases of an acquisition process. The team offers legal assistance in all types of issues and in any phase of the acquisition process, both for the client and the provider. The lawyers on the team assist clients on an ongoing basis with, among other things, the design, or assessment, of the basis for competition before the announcement. They can also assist with preparing the basis for competition, prequalification of providers and evaluation of offers. For providers, the team assists both with the submission of offers and any complaints.

The Publishing team supports Norwegian publishers and related trade associations with legal and commercial advice on major and minor issues. The team routinely works with questions involving the publication of fiction and non-fiction works in traditional and digital formats, and with digital platforms and other products and services developed by publishers. Among other things, the team can provide advice on the management and licensing of rights, freedom of expression, data protection and defamation/libel, as well as on the drafting and interpretation of commercial contracts and collective agreements in the publishing industry.

The Real Estate team offers real estate planning, building and development services based on its long experience of assisting public and private actors with land use planning and building issues. Several team members have come from the public sector, including Oslo Municipality (Agency for Planning and Building Services), the County Governor’s Office and the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernization. The team also has cutting edge expertise in general administrative law, legislation relating to conservation areas in Oslo and neighbouring municipalities, the system for applications and legal aspects of the right to accept responsibility, as well as issues related to property law in planning and construction cases.

The Restaurants & Hospitality team assists stakeholders in the restaurant, hospitality, and nightlife businesses. The team provides legal services related to contract negotiations and public licenses, such as licenses to sell alcohol and food, security, licenses to play music and show sporting events, and public authority requirements such as fire and safety.

The team of specialists helps clients establish and maintain methodical compliance work. Team members support clients by identifying their risks, including any legal risks and potential risk to their reputations. An enterprise’s awareness of such risks will make it more robust in navigating a changing world. The team’s specialists in data protection, security, Corporate Social Responsibility and labour law offer advice on in-house guidelines and compliance measures, audits and/or on the compilation of compliance systems, internal investigations and the handling of non-conformance.

Bing Hodneland’s sports team assists athletes, clubs, agents, sponsors, companies and organizations both nationally and internationally with, among other things, negotiation of agreements, legal advice and disputes. The team assists major players in Norwegian sports, such as the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) and top clubs and sports teams. Bing Hodneland’s sports lawyers assist, among other things, with advice relating to the design and assessment of sponsorship agreements, transition agreements in football, employment agreements and consultancy agreements. The team also assists with the commercialization of copyrights, the right to one’s own image and trademarks, as well as the enforcement of such rights.

The team that oversees succession in family businesses has long experience of advising clients on transferring business activities and other assets to the next generation. The team provides counsel on how to plan and implement successful succession to coming generations, including drawing up wills, future powers of attorney and transaction documents required for making transfers. Thanks to their comprehensive expertise in tax law and corporate law, team members can help clients restructure companies and groups of companies to prepare for succession in family businesses.

Bing Hodneland’s Tax and VAT team provides help with most relevant issues, e.g. in connection with transactions, audits, international tax law, value-added tax (VAT), disputes with the tax and VAT authorities, general tax and VAT advisory services, etc. The attorneys in this service area provide advice on questions such as the optimisation of tax and VAT liability, as well as on the tax and VAT effects of demergers/mergers and on questions related to the restructuring and reorganization of business activities. The team also works with tax and VAT questions associated with labour-related issues. The team offers assistance to foreign and domestic companies, sole proprietorships, foundations, nonprofits, board members, investors and private individuals.

The Theatre team provides help with all legal aspects of theatre productions and their commercialization. The team also fields questions about copyright, music rights, performing rights, labour law and independent contractors. The team can help draw up contract templates or draft tailor-made contracts for individual productions. The team is equipped to deal with rights clearance effectively, not least when a production is to be made available online, including on social media, and when the music is to be released.