Heads of Roschier and Hannes Snellman quit to found new firm

Ulf-Henrik Kull and Carl-Henrik Wallin, the managing partners of Roschier and Hannes Snellman respectively, have formed six-partner Avance Attorneys.

Kull is senior partner of the new firm while Wallin is managing partner.

The other founding partners are Elisa Heinonen and Erkki-Antti Sadinmaa from Roschier, Sari Wallgren from Hannes Snellman and Ilkka Perheentupa from Goldman Sachs.

Hannes Snellman’s head of private M&A Finland Mathias Lindqvist and head of real estate and energy Finland Christoffer Charpentier will join Avance as partners as soon as they are released from their current commitments.

Kull and Wallin said they and their colleagues wanted to establish an independent and client-focused firm.

“We share a two-fold goal that we want to achieve - satisfied clients and a content team,” said Wallin.

“We challenge ourselves to truly understand our clients’ industry and operational drivers. We also want to engage exceptional young practitioners and provide them with early opportunities to participate in the building of our firm.”

Wallin said the firm will add further lawyers “more or less immediately”.

“We’ll work at length to ensure that they’re the right people we take on board, with the right attitude and competences,” he added.

The departures from Hannes Snellman come after Dittmar & Indrenius hired banking lawyer Kari Lautjärvi earlier this year (29 June 2011).