Working at Thommessen

At Thommessen, we invest in our key resource – our people. We invite you to read more about how we practise our commitment to learning, accomplishment and meaning for every TeamThommessen member. Making Thommessen a great place to work for each other is integral to who we are.

In order to work well together we also need to enjoy each other’s company. We are therefore committed to creating a friendly working environment, where everyone is seen and valued. We celebrate progress together and support each other when facing a bit of headwind.

After having worked from home for much of 2020 and 2021, we have defined the key aspects of Thommessen 2.0. The best of Thommessen has been combined with new experiences and new lessons on how we want to work together. In ordinary times, the office shall be our nexus – somewhere we want to come in order to meet each other and to work well with both colleagues and clients. It is nonetheless important for us to be able to also work efficiently and effectively, and to feel included, when we are working elsewhere and across our offices.

These are our headline priorities for Thommessen 2.0 – across teams and offices:

• Flexibility + fellowship: We believe that the flexibility to work from home will increase satisfaction, without reducing productivity – quite the contrary. We nonetheless enjoy meeting up physically, experiencing a sense of fellowship and having fun together. At Thommessen, each of us will be able to decide, based on the project framework, the best place to work. We will apply a 3:2 model – three office days and two optional days – and we organise our operations to facilitate this for everyone.

• Activity-based work: Our VIA premises in Oslo feature an activity-based landscape, specifically designed to encourage teamwork, knowledge transfer and innovation – which we believe are key to creating the law firm of the future. Everyone has an office space of their own, but many of us use it less than in a traditional office because people move around the premises and have more choices. When you are in the office, you choose where to work based on what you want to get done and who you are going to work with. Anyone needing complete peace and concentration may use one of the 43 quiet rooms in our office, which are equipped to match their own office space. Everyone is free to also work from home when that is the best option. We also have an activity-based office landscape in Stavanger. Moreover, we will be relocating to new Stavanger premises in 2023, which offer more room of expansion.
• Digital communications: Digital communications have boosted interdisciplinary and interoffice cooperation at Thommessen during the pandemic. This is a core feature of Thommessen 2.0.
• Test, learn, adapt: Nothing is cast in stone – we will test, learn and adapt along the way. One aspect of this is our involvement in an OsloMet research project studying the teamwork and knowledge sharing implications of how we work and where we work.

In addition to professional project management skills making every team member understand their role and their contribution in context, our working methods are aimed at bringing predictability to projects and workflows, thereby facilitating a good work-life balance.

We are actively seeking to create a firm characterised by more diversity. You and everyone else at Thommessen shall experience equal opportunities and shall feel comfortable about being yourself at work, irrespective of background, gender, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Our strategy includes specific targets for increasing the proportion of women among our senior attorneys and partners. In order to reach our targets, we have introduced a number of measures in relation to recruitment, management training, flexibility for staff with small children, etc. An accompanying measure is the establishment of a designated Women’s Committee, which supports management in its efforts to improve our gender balance and increase the retention of women lawyers.

In addition to increasing the proportion of women at the firm, we are also taking steps to become a more multiculturally diverse firm. Not only because we want to reflect the society we live in and because we as advisors aim to provide the very best service to a diverse range of businesses, but also because of our strong belief that diversity makes for a better and richer organisational culture.

It is best for everyone if each of us feel that they can be themself at work. We are therefore delighted that the Thommessen employee survey confirms that such is the case in our firm. We also want new TeamThommessen members to be true to themself and enrich us with their own unique perspective.