He competed his education in law in 1963, having worked part-time in Postverket. He was Norway"s Governor of Svalbard from 1974 to 1977 and 1985 to 1991. Between the two spells he had been appointed as deputy under-secretary of state in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police.
Except for his second spell in Svalbard, he was the permanent under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice from 1979 to 1993.
From 1 January 1994 to his death in August 1994 he served as a Supreme Court Justice.