Kristiina Hirva

Partner
Co-head of Finance
Kristiina Hirva
Location
Helsinki
Language
English, Finnish, Swedish

Kristiina Hirva practices primarily in the area of banking and finance, with a particular emphasis on financial regulatory and compliance advisory to domestic and foreign clients. Kristiina regularly advises financial institutions subject to supervision, insurance companies and non-bank lenders in various regulatory issues, including licences and notifications, permissibility and structuring of financial activities and products, drafting of client and marketing documentation, anti-money laundering compliance and cross-border offering of financial services and products. She also advices the clients with regulatory matters related to acquisitions and transactions. An important aspect of her practice involves tracking rapid market and regulatory changes and provision of comparative assessments of regulations across the DLA Piper jurisdictions.

In addition to the financial regulatory matters, she also advises clients regularly on various financing arrangements. Having worked for several years as in-house counsel at a leading Nordic bank, she possesses deep understanding and practical knowledge, among others, of leasing and factoring contracts. As regards capital markets matters, Kristiina is continuously advising major Finnish issuers in relation to their MTN and ECP programmes.

Credentials
Education
  • University of Helsinki, Master of Laws, 1999
Memberships
  • Finnish Bar Association
Experience
Prior Experience
  • 2016 to 2020, Counsel, DLA Piper Finland Attorneys Ltd
  • 2007 to 2016, Counsel, Senior Associate Finnish law firm
  • 1999 to 2007, Legal Counsel, Nordea Finance Finland Ltd
Selected recent references
  • Advising Prime Capital AG on investment and financing of Sandbacka onshore wind farm in Finland (2024)
  • Advising Teollisuuden Voima Oyj on issue of EUR 600 million green bond and related tender offer (2024)
  • Advising Teollisuuden Voima Oyj in connection with new EUR 1.0 billion revolving credit facility (2022)
  • Advising Teollisuuden Voima Oyj on issue of EUR 600 million five-year bond and related tender offer (2022)
  • Advising Saari Partners in its investment in Geniem (2022)
  • Advising Worldline in acquisition of the card-acquiring activities of Handelsbanken in the Nordics (2021)
  • Advising Trevian Funds AIFM on new carbon sink fund (2020)
  • Advising Nordic Food Tech VC on the first closing of its NFT.VC Fund with EUR24.55 million in commitments (2020)
Rankings
Legal 500 EMEA
  • Endorsed in Legal 500 EMEA 2021
  • Endorsed in Legal 500 EMEA 2022
  • Endorsed in Legal 500 EMEA 2023
  • Endorsed in Legal 500 EMEA 2024
Chambers FinTech
  • Endorsed in Chambers FinTech 2023
  • Endorsed in Chambers FinTech 2024