Employment law and pensions

Bull assists companies with HR and employment law issues, both in the private and public sectors – and we assist individuals. We also have significant experience assisting Norwegian and international companies who recruit employees from other countries.

Employment law can be challenging to deal with on your own. Our experience is that solid legal advice saves the employer and employee time, expenses, legal proceedings, unrest in the workplace, and negative attention.

Our lawyers focus on finding good solutions for all parties, with the lowest possible level of conflict. We know our clients well and contribute to quick clarification of the issues. Most of our clients are employers, but we also assist employees, and we believe this makes us better advisers. Our lawyers regularly offer courses in employment law issues, and internal courses for companies.

We can assist with:

• employment agreements
• collective agreements
• incentive and bonus schemes
• handling whistle-blower cases, disputes and notification services
• changes in working conditions, restructuring and downsizing
• terminations and final agreement negotiations
• non-compete clauses, advice and disputes about unfair competition from employees
• management of long-term sick leave
• staffing solutions
• international working conditions and wages and working conditions for Norwegian and foreign workers
• privacy in working life, control measures and access to e-mail, in collaboration with our privacy team
• integration processes and employment law due diligence in connection with transactions, mergers and acquisitions, in collaboration with our company law and transactions team
• pension law advice
• mediation and dispute resolution before the courts

The ranking agency The Legal 500 ranks the team in Tier 4 and notes that "the team at Bull & Co Advokatfirma AS combines a ‘strong‘ employment practice with sector-specialist expertise in the technology, life sciences and healthcare industries. The practice is led by Anette Mellbye, who advises on both domestic and cross-border employment law issues. The team also includes Kåre Bjørlo, who frequently advises on downsizings, restructurings and pensions; and Jørgen Burdal, who is praised as an ‘extremely flexible and very helpful‘ practitioner and is a specialist in individual employment protection matters." (2024)

Satisfied clients note that:

"They are a strong team with a focus on the client’s needs. They have excellent communication skills and give clear advice. We are dealing with some difficult cases and they guide us through it with focus and engagement." (The Legal 500, 2024)

"At Bull, the lawyers are always open for questions and discussions. Any advice given is very well reasoned, backed up and where necessary explained to the layperson. The lawyers we have dealt with are especially skilled in their field, which is easily noticeable when discussing legal matters with them, as they are familiar with all the recent developments in their field as well as precedent from the past." (The Legal 500, 2024)

"The team understands the business of the client." (The Legal 500, 2024)

"The lawyers interact in a friendly way, and you get the impression of working with a good colleague." (The Legal 500, 2024)