Pär Andersson is a Swedish lawyer based in Malmö, whose career in business law spans more than three decades at Mannheimer Zetterlöf and Mannheimer Swartling. He was a partner from 1987 and, since 2018, has practised commercial dispute resolution through his own firm.
Background
Pär Andersson's documented life is rooted in southern Sweden. He studied law at Lund, a university founded in 1666 in the former Danish province of Skåne, a region Sweden had secured from Denmark through the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The university was established as part of the effort to consolidate Swedish control over the province.
The early university began with four faculties (theology, law, medicine and philosophy), and the Faculty of Law has remained one of its original units. Decades later, Andersson practised law in Malmö, also in Skåne, linking his professional life to the region where his university education had taken place.
Education
Pär Andersson received his Swedish law degree from Lund University in 1979. The degree, a jur. kand. (juris kandidat), is the standard professional law qualification in Sweden and is generally rendered in English as a Master of Laws.
Lund University's Faculty of Law is one of the institution's four original faculties, dating back to the university's founding in 1666. Its law degree programme is among the most popular in Sweden, and it combines academic research with the training of students for legal practice.
Career
Andersson's professional life began in the Swedish judicial system. Between 1979 and 1981 he completed judicial training (tingsmeritering) at the Helsingborg Police Authority and the Helsingborg District Court. Swedish police authorities are regional bodies responsible for policing within their districts, and Helsingborg, a port city on the Öresund coast in Skåne, hosted a district court that handled first-instance civil and criminal cases for its area. During the same period he worked as an amanuensis, an academic assistant, at the Faculty of Law of Lund University.
From 1981 to 1982 he served as a junior judge (fiskal) at the Göta Court of Appeal, one of Sweden's six courts of appeal, which hears appeals from the district courts and is seated in Jönköping. He then joined the Gothenburg-founded firm Mannheimer Zetterlöf as an associate in 1982. Love Mannheimer and Tage Zetterlöf had established the firm in Gothenburg in 1943 with the aim of building a modern practice that trained its associates into partners. Andersson spent 1985 and 1986 on secondment at a law firm in New York and became a partner of Mannheimer Zetterlöf in 1987.
In 1990 Mannheimer Zetterlöf merged with Carl Swartling Advokatbyrå, a firm whose origins lay in a Stockholm practice founded in 1875. The merged firm, Mannheimer Swartling, began with about ninety lawyers on 1 July 1990. Andersson remained a partner there until 2016. He served as executive partner in 1995 and 1996, sat on the board from 1995 to 2000, and chaired the partners' meeting from 2005 to 2016. Mannheimer Swartling later became the leading business law firm in the Nordic region, and in 2017 Andersson moved to a role as senior adviser, which he held until 31 January 2018.
On 1 February 2018 he established Pär Andersson Advokatbyrå in Malmö. The practice focuses mainly on commercial dispute resolution. Andersson's earlier work included large transactions in mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures across many industries, as well as representation as counsel in national and international commercial disputes.
Membership
Pär Andersson has been a member of the Swedish Bar Association (Sveriges advokatsamfund) since 1985. The association is the professional body for Sweden's advokater, the lawyers admitted to practise before the courts, and its members work under professional rules that emphasize client loyalty, independence and confidentiality. Andersson sat on the association's board from 2010 to 2016, served as a deputy member and board member of its South Region from 2011 to 2016, and was a member of its insurance group from 2013 to 2016.
He was a member of the board of the Arbitration Association of South Sweden from 1997 to 2008 and chaired it from 2004 to 2008. Arbitration has long been central to Swedish commercial practice. The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has operated an arbitral institution since 1917, and Sweden adopted an arbitration act in 1929.
Board member; deputy member and board member of the South Region board; member of the insurance group
Swedish Bar Association (Sveriges advokatsamfund)
,
Sweden
1985 - present
Board member; chairman
Arbitration Association of South Sweden
,
Sweden
1997 - 2008
References
Om Pär Andersson (firm website biography)
Professional biography and curriculum vitae published by Pär Andersson Advokatbyrå, covering his legal education, bar membership, and career at Mannheimer Zetterlöf and Mannheimer Swartling.
