Axel Calissendorff is a Swedish lawyer whose career centered on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and arbitration. He was a partner at Mannheimer Swartling, founded the Stockholm office of Roschier, and served as president of the Swedish Bar Association from 2001 to 2004.
Background
Sven Axel Rolf Calissendorff, known as Axel, was born on 25 May 1953 in Engelbrekt parish in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Gotthard Calissendorff, was also a lawyer, so his early surroundings were connected with the legal profession in the Swedish capital.
He was born at a time when Tage Erlander of the Social Democrats was prime minister of Sweden. His life therefore spanned the postwar decades in which Stockholm grew into the country's principal center for business and legal services.
Education
Calissendorff studied law at the University of Stockholm and received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1978. The institution originated as Stockholms högskola, a university college founded in 1878 that opened with public lectures open to ordinary citizens, a tradition that continues in yearly open lectures.
The college became a state university in 1960, and it now includes a law faculty among its four faculties. Calissendorff's degree therefore came from an institution that had only recently acquired university status when he began his studies, and his subsequent court service placed him directly in the Swedish judicial system.
Career
Calissendorff's working life began in the Swedish courts, where he served and held junior judgeships from 1978 to 1981. In Sweden, court clerkship was a prerequisite for becoming a judge or prosecutor, so this period placed him within the country's formal judicial career structure.
In 1981 he joined Mannheimer & Zetterlöf as an associate and became a partner in 1986. The firm later took the name Mannheimer Swartling, and Swedish business press described it as a giant of the country's legal market. His name came to be closely associated with the firm.
He became a partner of Mannheimer Swartling in 1990 and served as executive partner from 1993 to 1994. From 1997 to 2004 he led the firm's mergers and acquisitions group, and press coverage linked him with a number of the largest corporate transactions of the period. He later stated that he had done most of what he could do at the firm.
In 2005 he left Mannheimer Swartling to build a Swedish presence for Roschier, a Finnish firm known as Roschier Holmberg in the press. He founded the firm's Stockholm office and served as its managing partner for Sweden until 2011 and as senior partner from 2009 to 2012. He aimed to build a medium-sized firm of about 25 lawyers in Sweden.
In 2009 he was appointed hovauditör, a court title held by legal counsel to the Swedish royal court, and he held the post until 2021. In 2013 he founded a new Stockholm law firm that appears as Calissendorff Swarting in some sources and as Calissendorff Advokatbyrå in others, and he has been a partner there since. He is often appointed as an arbitrator and has long experience chairing shareholder meetings of listed companies.
Achievements
Founded the Stockholm office of Roschier and served as its managing partner for Sweden until 2011.
(Co-edited with Patrik Schöldström. This fourth edition co...)
2023
Membership
Calissendorff has been a member of the Swedish Bar Association since 1984. The Association, Sveriges advokatsamfund, was founded in 1887 as a voluntary association of academically trained lawyers and gained official recognition when the Code of Judicial Procedure took effect in 1948. Only its members may use the professional title advokat.
The Association's objectives include maintaining high ethical and professional standards in the legal profession and safeguarding the professional interests of its members. Calissendorff served as its president from 2001 to 2004.
President
Swedish Bar Association
,
Sweden
1984
Connections
Calissendorff is the son of the lawyer Gotthard Calissendorff. He has been married to Kerstin Calissendorff since 1984, and she is a former justice of Sweden's Supreme Court who previously worked as a lawyer at Cederquist.
The couple have two children, Karin and Kaj, who were named in a business magazine profile of Calissendorff.
Father:
Gotthard Calissendorff
Lawyer.
child:
Karin Calissendorff
child:
Kaj Calissendorff
Wife:
Kerstin Calissendorff
Former justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden and previously a lawyer at Cederquist.
References
Axel Calissendorff (Swedish Wikipedia)
Swedish-language encyclopedia article describing his birth, legal career, presidency of the Swedish Bar Association, and service as hovauditör.
Axel Calissendorff - Calissendorff Swarting
Firm profile setting out his M&A and corporate governance practice and his career at Mannheimer & Zetterlöf, Mannheimer Swartling, and Roschier.
Scenbyte för stjärnadvokaten
Affärsvärlden profile describing his departure from Mannheimer Swartling to establish a new office under Roschier and his plans to build a medium-sized firm.
