Cornelii Sandberg works at Vasa Advokatbyr, a law firm based in Sweden. His company mainly deals with breaches of contract and has an office in France and contacts in Thailand. Construction is one of the main branches of the company.
Cornelii, how did you end up at a construction law firm?
I’ve known the owner for a long time, so when a position opened up, I took it. I look forward to making a difference to this law firm. Construction law is a major industry for us, although we also do other things.
What kind of construction contracts and disputes does your office deal with?
It may be a construction that is overdue and there must be agreement on the follow-up. Or it could be a tiny homeowner who gets a really bad carpenter. And of course, the carpenter can get a bad customer and need our help. We work with people as well as companies.
Do you generally advise and represent construction companies or the people they build for?
We usually come later. We usually work when a contract is breached by either party. If it goes to trial, we will represent our client with as many attorneys as we see fit.
Your company has offices in France and is connected to Thailand – are you dealing with a lot of international contracts?
It happens. Europe is quite harmonized and uses Latin law as a basis, although variations exist. In Thailand we help foreign homeowners with legal advice.
What are some of the challenges your team faces when dealing with French and Thai legislation?
The language barriers. We have French speaking staff, but it would be great if knowledge of English was more common, like in Sweden. The same goes for Thailand and sometimes we need translators for some dialects.
Does your company have plans to expand further abroad?
We have contacts in the US, but we’re not sure yet if we should expand into that area as well. The best thing would be to work with a US law firm and help them with European cases.
Kieran is an editor at Best in Australia and has written for many well-known companies. Whatever his job, he always writes from his heart! He has a passion for different areas including the digital world, sports and all things news.
