Setterwalls is growing its tax practice – becoming a leader in Sweden

In August, Setterwalls’ Stockholm office will employ four new tax lawyers, thereby becoming one of the leading law firms in Sweden for advice on tax matters. The new lawyers bring experience from the administrative courts, official reports regarding company taxation and tax advice in the private sector, including work with legal issues related to taxation of law firms, The Federation of Swedish Farmers (Lantbrukarnas riksförbund, LRF) and The Federation of Swedish Industries (Industriförbundet). As a result of these new recruitments, we will have a total of 15 tax lawyers working at our offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe.

With these recruitments, we will maintain our position as one of the leading law firms in Sweden. Over the past five years, we have been the fastest growing corporate law firm, doubling in growth and the number of employees.

“The recruitments put us in a very good position to increase market share, especially from the tax lawyers working at the auditing companies,” states Håkan Fohlin, Partner at Setterwalls.

We provide counsel in all tax areas. We have experience in assisting clients on tax issues in conjunction with the purchase and sale of companies, restructuring of companies and corporate groups, assessing and creating appropriate ownership and acquisition structures, financing issues, and the establishment of businesses in Sweden and abroad. Over the past few years, we have noticed an increased demand for tax advice. Emine Lundkvist, head of Setterwalls’ tax group, provides the following explanation for this increased demand:

• Law firms are taking more of the tax advising from the auditing companies. This change is partly due to the scandals such as, among others, the Enron-scandal, and the subsequent demand to distinguish between auditing and advice.
• Today, law firms have a more important role in complex transactions than ever before. The increasing number of M&A issues, often with international aspects, has led to an increased demand for company lawyers concerning tax advice. Competent tax advice therefore becomes a crucial competitive advantage for a law firm with the ambition to assist in large transactions.
• In Sweden, there have been a number of recent changes regarding company taxation for both small and large companies, i.e. taxation of holding companies and the tax rules regarding small and medium-sized enterprises. This has led to increased demand from small and medium-sized companies for tax advice.

The four new tax lawyers are:

Olle Stenman, partner, lawyer
Judge in administrative courts, appointed expert at the Ombudsmen of Justice (JO) and at the Ministry of Finance. Olle Stenman has been a special investigator and expert in several official reports, especially in company taxation. He has been tax director at The Federation of Swedish Farmers (Lantbrukarnas riksförbund, LRF) and responsible for income taxation at The Federation of Swedish Industries (Industriförbundet). He has also published reference books on taxation. Olle joins us after working most recently at Cederquist.

Karl-Johan Grundström, associate
LL.M. University of Lund and Queen Mary University of London. Company taxation, University of Stockholm. 2003 Tax Authorities in Stockholm (Riksskatteverket), jurist; 2004-2005 County Tax Authority in Stockholm, law clerk. Most recently at Cederquist.

Lynda Ondrasek Olofsson, associate
LL.M. University of Stockholm. 2003-2005 County Tax Authority in Stockholm, law clerk; 2005-2006 Stockholm administrative court of appeal, assistant judge. Public procurement experience. Most recently at Cederquist.

Helena Löwdell, associate
LL.M. University of Gothenburg. 2005-2007 District Court of Varberg, law clerk. Most recently at Cederquist.