Pekka Vainio

I have worked as a lawyer for 25 years. Throughout my career, I have also carried out research and taught law at various universities. I have dealt with a wide range of assignments in different fields of law, from establishing, planning and organisizing a business to resolution of large and small conflicts. Assignments have covered the whole business life cycle from protecting the business idea to marketing and competition, building business relationships, dispute resolution, and ultimately transferring or moving business to the buyer or next generation of entrepreneurs.

In addition to the domestic courts, the duties have taken me to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In either of these, I have had the honor of pursuing my client’s case in front of a large chamber.

(Link to the public session of the EIT Grand Chamber: http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=hearings&w=93113_14092016&language=lang&c=&py=2016 )

After graduating as a lawyer, I completed my postgraduate studies in Brussels. They have deepened my vision and knowledge of both Finnish and European legal systems. I have also studied economics. This has not only developed my vision of law as a tool for business development, but has also brought deeper understanding of business itself. My strongest expertise is contract, tort and finance law, labor law, tax law and civil rights. I have also gained experience and expertise in many other areas of business regulation as well as in family and inheritance law. I hold a position at Heikkila Attorneys at Law as well as teach law and do researching at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Vaasa. I am convinced that the practice, teaching and research create a synthesis where each part strengthens my skills in the other two.  

” A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”  – Albert Einstein 

When establishing a business, it is worth turning to a professional lawyer at an early stage. If you turn to a lawyer only when the business is in conflict, the cost will usually be higher. If a lawyer is involved from the outset, conflicts may perhaps be avoided altogether. Thus, the damage to business relationships will also be avoided. Of course, conflict or legal risk in business is not always avoidable. However, it is essential that they can often be identified beforehand. This also makes it easier to control them. The confidence in the business may also be maintained. Even when business risks and potential conflicts do arise, the consequences are usually more manageable if business and business relationships are built and designed in a legally sustainable manner.
More than anything else, I see law as a tool for building a business. In many cases, finding the most effective legal means of implementation has also enabled a better return potential and thus greater profitability. The services of a lawyer may pay for themselves when involved in an early stage.