Sweden is one of the largest countries in the EU. It is the leading economy of the Nordic region, with the largest population and a GDP almost 50 percent greater than any other Nordic country. It also prides itself on having an open economy and a stable political and social climate: it is ranked first in the world in The Economist’s Democracy Index and seventh in the United Nations’ Human Development Index.

Due to its size and sophisticated legal system, Sweden has a well-developed business and transaction climate – and as such has seen the same recent ups and downs as the rest of Europe. However 2010 was largely a year of recovery from the global financial crisis, and proved to deliver a positive turnaround in terms of transactional volume in the region, especially during the second half.

This trend was reflected in the legal market. The Swedish legal sector has historically been a competitive one, populated primarily by domestic practices. However the last 10 years has seen a trend of more and more international firms establishing themselves in the Swedish market, so that today there is a diverse mix.

Established in 1953, Cederquist is among the older domestic establishments, with an office in the centre of Stockholm and approximately 100 lawyers working in all fields of business law (except tax). However its relatively modest size means that it retains the ability to adapt with the times, and so continues to be internationally recognised as one of the leading actors on the Swedish legal market.

The developing sector
In Sweden 10 years ago, a lawyer was a specialist to whom people in need of legal counsel turned for assistance, and all one needed to succeed was a well-known name and a positive reputation for professionalism and reliability.

Today those expectations remain, but also so much more. The modern Swedish lawyer must be a businessperson as well as a legal expert, and must maintain extensive knowledge of the market at large. The modern lawyer must be an administrator, a project leader and a problem solver; she must be creative, sales-oriented, pragmatic, efficient and available at all times. Ideally, she will be one step ahead, approaching the client with a solution before the problem arises.

These are the expectations that Cederquist, as a law firm at the forefront of change, has focused on satisfying for the last five or six years – while at the same time maintaining the best practices and professionalism of its half-century history. This has meant engaging with clients to assess what they expect from the market, while working on internal structures, culture and tools to remain at the vanguard of the sector.

At the same time, the company has been focusing on expanding its expertise offer. For instance, the firm has been well-known for a long time as a market leader within banking and finance in Sweden. What was noted and confirmed during 2010 was that they also had a comprehensive offer – second to no other top-tier firm – with regard to the sort of skills needed in transactions and other Corporate/M&A services, such as general M&A, Corporate Real Estate, and Competition and Public Procurement Law. This was something that the firm had been focusing on and something that it started to communicate to clients seeking assistance within these different areas during the last year. The full offering was also something the firm communicated in a new way when approaching clients in other markets. The result was that Cederquist was consulted in two of the most prestigious international deals on the Swedish market: the Saab Spyker deal, and the deal involving Geely and Volvo.

But what are the strengths that have led to the great reputation in these areas today? Cederquist’s banking and finance practice is highly international, in the sense that there is almost always a cross-border element in each deal. It acts for lenders and borrowers (although more commonly for the former), international and domestic banks, and other providers of funds tend to dominate the client list.

The Cederquist banking and finance practice has expanded rapidly over the last years – it has seen tremendous growth and today the market share is substantial. When surveying the market, the overall opinion is that over the last several years Cederquist has repeatedly demonstrated that they are a leading top-tier law firm in the banking and finance sector. This opinion finds support in directories, such as the Legal 500 and IFLR 1000, among the leading market players and in the number of high-end deals the company has completed in the last year.

Internal improvements
But still, to be in the vanguard of the market one needs to develop one’s offer, and not just rely on existing work. In addition to traditional activities within the core financing practice, Cederquist has been highly involved in the field of work-outs and restructurings, and represented a wide variety of clients within this field, including lenders, borrowers, equity investors and potential purchasers of companies facing financial difficulties during the last couple of years.

In developing its offer, the practice has focused on three different areas. The first has been documentation quality and fine-tuned working procedures, which have enabled them to meet the extremely tight timetables frequently set by market players to produce and turn around the requisite documentation. The second focus area has been strong project management. The third focus area has been the retention and support of a highly dedicated team of associates and assistants who share the firm’s philosophy of strong team work. With this in mind, all the junior lawyers are properly trained and encouraged to develop and take on increasing responsibilities under the supervision of more senior colleagues – this organic growth helps to develop the firm’s robust and positive culture.

During 2010, Cederquist attracted several prestigious matters of a cross-border nature. Representing, as stated earlier, Geely and Spyker in highly competitive and/or publicly monitored acquisitions, and marking for each of the clients their entry into new markets and/or segments, must be an unrivalled achievement for any law firm. The achievement was made possible as a result of a young but experienced and diverse team having received much of its international training by leading its Swedish clients’ M&A-activities abroad. During the last few years much effort has been expended on building relationships with top-tier firms with international reach and capabilities in the legal areas deemed important from a Swedish/Nordic perspective.

What can be seen is that Cederquist, as a relatively small but important Swedish player, has managed to look forward while being mindful of its history. It has managed to build a strong and interesting practice, delivering the services and values that today’s clients demand. Of course the market is continuing to change, and to keep up they need to maintain their focus and dialogue with both clients and the market. But by maintaining its historic professionalism, while keeping its focus on the legal sector’s future, it seems to have found a good path for further success.