Jesper Nevalainen
Jesper Nevalainen
Jesper heads our Technology practice in the Helsinki office, and his practice focuses on commercial, technology, and data protection law, including outsourcing in the TMT sectors, and he has particular expertise in open source licensing issues. He advises both buyers and suppliers of information technology on a wide range of business-critical matters ranging from strategic advice, project management, contract drafting, negotiations, and disputes to re-engineering of distressed projects. In addition to outsourcing, his expertise also covers complex technology transactions, data protection and privacy, as well as non-contentious IP, software licensing, and compliance matters.
Business-minded and smart lawyer with a good approach to client service.
Chambers Europe, 2023
References
Parties:
Gasgrid Finland Oy, Excelerate Energy
Transaction:
Gasgrid Finland Oy's chartering of an LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Unit from Excelerate Energy.
Deal Value:
EUR 460 million
Role:
Counsel to Gasgrid Finland Oy

Rabbe Sittnikow

Janna Pihanurmi

Meri-Katriina Pyhäranta

Santeri Jääskeläinen

Heikki Majamaa

Mikko Huimala

Päivi Tammilehto

Outi Jousi

Annika Tiitola

Klaus Metsä-Simola

Jesper Nevalainen

Lasse Riski

Anniina Hämäläinen

Johanna Haltia-Tapio

Anna Nyberg
Counsel to Finnish Customs in the public procurement of bitcoin brokerage services. The assignment is related to the Finnish Government’s decision to sell the Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies seized by Finnish Customs and allocate a significant share of the additional revenue to support Ukraine in the current war.

Outi Jousi

Jesper Nevalainen

Anna Mäkinen

Eeva Tiainen

Jari Tukiainen

Antti Kuha

Stefan Stellato
Parties
Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (Buyer), Pontos Oy, Taaleri Datacenter Ky, other sellers (Sellers), Ficolo Oy (Target)
Transaction
Sale of Ficolo Oy to Digital 9 Infrastructure plc
Deal Value
EUR 135 million
Role
Counsel to Pontos Oy, Taaleri Datacenter Ky, and other sellers

Tuire Kuronen

Satu Kokko

Oliver Vesterlund

Joonas Vartia

Jesper Nevalainen

Sami Niemi

Anna Nyberg

Julia Ranta

Mikko Huimala
Parties
IK Partners (Buyer), Intera Fund II Ky, Intera Fund III Ky, management and other minority shareholders (Sellers), Renta Group Oy (Target)
Transaction
Intera Partners’ sale of Renta Group Oy to IK Partners
Deal Value
Value not public
Role
Counsel to Intera Partners

Sten Olsson

Roosa Väre

Niclas Ruotsalainen

Antti Nyberg (Alanko)

Sami Niemi

Pauliina Sutinen

Risto Ojakoski

Jesper Nevalainen

Wilhelm Sanmark

Mikko Huimala

Claes Kjellberg

Douglas Essehorn

Alexander Lindqvist

Josephine Gjerstad Medina

Olof Östman

Amanda Alexandersson
Parties
Angel Pond Holdings Corporation, MariaDB Corporation Ab
Transaction
Combination of Angel Pond Holdings Corporation and MariaDB Corporation Ab by way of a domestication merger and cross-border merger, and related transactions
Deal Value
USD 672 million (implied enterprise value of the combined company)
Role
Finnish counsel to Angel Pond Holdings Corporation

Tuire Kuronen

Agda Vähä-Piikkiö

Heidi Haanpää

Susanna Purovirta

Oliver Vesterlund

Joonas Vartia

Heikki Vesikansa

Harri Vehviläinen

Joakim Frände

Jesper Nevalainen

Liisa Vaaraniemi

Risto Ojakoski

Hanna Lindberg
Parties
Lassila & Tikanoja plc (JV shareholder), Neova Oy (JV shareholder), L&T Biowatti Oy (joint venture company)
Transaction
Counsel to Lassila & Tikanoja plc, a service company that is putting the circular economy into practice, in creating a joint venture with Neova Oy consolidating the parties’ energy wood businesses in Finland and Estonia. The joint venture’s turnover is approximately EUR 100 million and it employs approximately 100 employees.
Deal Value
Not disclosed
Role
Legal counsel to L&T plc

Tuire Kuronen

Susanna Purovirta

Oliver Vesterlund

Jesper Nevalainen

Antti Nyberg (Alanko)

Risto Ojakoski
Parties
Landis+Gyr (Buyer), Telia Finland (Seller), Telia AMR Business (Target)
Transaction
Telia Finland’s sale of Telia AMR Business to Landis+Gyr
Deal Value
Value not public
Role
Counsel to Telia Finland (Seller)

Tuire Kuronen

Agda Vähä-Piikkiö

Jesper Nevalainen

Liisa Vaaraniemi

Anna Mäkinen

Risto Ojakoski
Parties
Amazon (Buyer), Umbra (Target)
Transaction
The acquisition of Umbra by Amazon.
Deal Value
Value not public
Role
Counsel to Umbra

Sten Olsson

Emmi Kantola

Jesper Nevalainen

Heikki Vesikansa

Jenni Parviainen

Joakim Frände

Johanna Haltia-Tapio
Parties
Sanoma Group (Buyer), Alma Media Corporation (Seller), Alma Media Kustannus Oy and Alma Manu Oy (Targets)
Transaction
Sanoma Group’s acquisition of Alma Media’s regional news media business
Deal Value
EUR 115 million (announced enterprise value)
Role
Counsel to Sanoma Group

Riikka Rannikko

Mikko Huimala

Jesper Nevalainen

Agda Vähä-Piikkiö

Jenni Heurlin
Counsel to Business Finland in public procurement of Business Finland Connection, a solution incorporating artificial intelligence, semantic search algorithms, and machine learning.

Outi Jousi

Jesper Nevalainen
Parties
Francisco Partners & SmartBear Software Inc. (Buyers), Bitbar Technologies Oy (Target)
Transaction
SmartBear's acquisition of Bitbar Technologies
Deal Value
Value not public
Role
Counsel to Francisco Partners backed SmartBear

Sten Olsson

Annika Schauman

Emmi Kantola

Jesper Nevalainen
Counsel to The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA) in public procurement.
Parties
Peab AB (Buyer), YIT Corporation (Seller), YIT’s Nordic paving and mineral aggregates businesses (Targets)
Transaction
YIT’s sale of its Nordic paving and mineral aggregates businesses in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark to Peab
Deal Value
EUR 280 million
Role
Counsel to YIT Corporation

Mikko Heinonen

Jesper Nevalainen

Klaus Metsä-Simola

Heikki Vesikansa

Harri Vehviläinen

Markus Bremer

Emmi Kantola

Johanna Haltia-Tapio

Klaara Lähteenoja

Jenny Lundberg

Janna Pihanurmi
Counsel in strategic public procurement to Finavia Oyj, which maintains and developes all Finnish airports.

Outi Jousi

Jesper Nevalainen
Parties
Mimir Invest (Buyer), Caverion (Seller), Project piping & tank business and the related Ylivieska workshop (Targets)
Transaction
Caverion’s sale of project piping & tank business and the related Ylivieska workshop of the Industrial Solutions division.
Deal Value
Value not public
Role
Counsel to Caverion

Heidi Haanpää

Ella Hiltunen

Riikka Kuha

Jesper Nevalainen

Heikki Vesikansa

Jenni Parviainen

Markus Bremer

Klaus Metsä-Simola
Parties
Nordic Packaging and Container Holdings (Seller), Mondi Group (Buyer), Powerflute Group Holdings Oy (Target)
Transaction
Nordic Packaging and Container Holdings' sale of Powerflute Group Holdings Oy to a division of Mondi Group
Deal Value
Enterprise value of EUR 365 million
Role
Counsel to Nordic Packaging and Container Holdings (NPAC Holdings)

Mikko Heinonen

Jesper Nevalainen

Outi Jousi

Antti Kuha

Mikael Lustig
Counsel to a significant IT service provider in a novel agile development project. The advice included strategic advice as well as contract drafting and negotiations.
Lead counsel in numerous IT and BPO outsourcing transactions, typically involving several countries.
Counsel in numerous cloud computing transactions.
Counsel in numerous licensing transactions and license compliance cases.
Counsel in numerous data protection and privacy cases, including data protection impact assessments and drafting and negotiating data processing agreements.
Developed novel agile development agreements.
Lead counsel in the re-engineering of a large-scale and complex distressed IT delivery project.
Acted as counsel to a leading international company in the procurement of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
Rankings
- Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2023 edition
- "Jesper Nevalainen is very diligent, practical and proactive. Jesper Nevalainen is a business-minded and smart lawyer with a good approach to client service. Jesper Nevalainen is very skilled, provides relevant and timely advice, and has a great understanding of the drivers of our business.", TMT, Chambers Europe, 2023
- Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards 2023: Highly Commended. “The firm helped Finnish customs authorities to conduct a public auction of bitcoin, then worth about €70mn, seized from illegal drug dealers. Funds of about $47mn raised by sale in 2022 were donated to the Ukrainian government.”
- "Jesper Nevalainen has strong experience in TMT agreements. He gives good guidance to his customers.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
- "Team lead Jesper Nevalainen, besides having excellent talent within his area of expertise, has the eye for pragmatic and customer-oriented approach. It is enjoyable to work with him.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
- "Jesper Nevalainen is an experienced lawyer with a practical and forward-looking mindset.", TMT, Legal 500, 2022
- 'Clients say: "He is extremely talented and enjoyable to work with."', TMT, Chambers Europe, 2022
- Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2021 edition
- "Jesper Nevalainen is a very pleasant person to work with. He has a broad knowledge of the legal framework, industry practices and suppliers’ most common legal terms and arguments.", TMT, Legal 500, 2021
- 'According to one client, Jesper Nevalainen "has the exceptional ability to provide clear and precise legal advice, even in the most difficult negotiations. He can create and implement effective negotiation strategies and adapt and modify the selected tactics if the situation so demands." ', TMT, Chambers Europe, 2021
- Recognised among the World’s highest ranked Data Lawyers in the Who’s Who Legal Data 2021 edition
- "Jesper Nevalainen is quick to respond and has a deep understanding of our business challenges The advice and legal recommendations he provides are based on applicable law and adapted to our business requirements/challenges." Another client says that "Outi Jousi and Jesper Nevalainen worked as a team in our assignment. Their high quality performance is based on their high level expertise. They are experts in various kinds of legal technological challenges. We can trust that every significant detail will be thoroughly considered and solved.", TMT, Legal 500, 2020
- 'Clients praise his skills and outside-the-box thinking, with one particularly endorsing his "great commercial awareness."', TMT, Chambers Europe 2020
- Ranked as 2020 exclusive winner of Client Choice’s Data Privacy & Protection category in Finland
- Recognised among the World’s highest-ranked Data Lawyers in the Who’s Who Legal Data 2020 edition
- "Clients praise Nevalainen's tremendous assistance.", TMT, Legal 500, 2019
- Ranked as one of the Thought Leaders in the Who's Who Legal – Data (Finland) 2019 edition
- Ranked among the World’s Leading Data Lawyers in the Information Technology category of Who’s Who Legal Data 2019 edition
- 'Interviewees value that he provides “good client service and technical knowledge.”', TMT, Chambers Europe 2018
- Financial Times Innovative Lawyers’ Awards 2017: Commended*
- Jesper Nevalainen is "commercially minded, authoritative and a pleasant man to work with, who is invaluable when difficult advice is needed quickly in pressurised scenarios", TMT, Chambers Europe 2017
- Ranked as a leading TMT practitioner several times by all notable legal directories (Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal and Best Lawyers)
(*=rankings from prior to joining Hannes Snellman)
Memberships and Positions of Trust
- Member of the Finnish Bar Association
- Member of ITechLaw (Committee Member of ITechLaw’s Technology Sourcing Committee 2020)
- Member of the Finnish IT Law Association (Member of the Board 2008–2012, Secretary of the Board 2009–2010, Chairman of the Board 2011–2012)
- Member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
Publications
Education and Professional Background
- Partner, Hannes Snellman, 2017
- Partner, Head and Co-Head of the Tech & Comms group (Finland), Bird & Bird Attorneys Ltd, 2012–2017
- Senior Associate, Bird & Bird Attorneys Ltd, 2008–2012
- Associate, Bird & Bird Attorneys Ltd, 2006–2008
- Legal Counsel, Tecnotree Corporation, 2006
- Associate, Roschier Attorneys Ltd, 2004–2006
- Master of Laws, University of Helsinki, 2004