Paula Airas
Paula Airas is a Helsinki-based Counsel specialized in commercial dispute resolution and insolvency law. Paula’s practice includes civil and criminal litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, including strategic advice for dispute avoidance. She is also a trusted advisor on EU sanctions related questions.
Due to her background in working with transactions, she has special emphasis on M&A and other transactional disputes, as well as shareholder agreements. Paula is also particularly experienced in complex insolvency matters with international aspects and supports clients both in insolvency related disputes and by providing strategic insolvency law advice.
Paula also has strong experience in various other areas such as corporate law and white collar crime, as well as industrial projects, where she has also gained valuable in-house experience from her secondment.
In addition, Paula has litigated and arbitrated disputes relating to international trade, product liability, business leases, international transport and agency & distribution matters, etc.
Apart from representing clients before courts and arbitral tribunals, and acting as arbitrator, Paula advises clients on strategic and compliance matters. She also regularly advises on various contractual matters and supports clients in drafting and negotiating their commercial agreements.
In addition to holding an LL.M. degree from the University of Lapland, Paula has studied law at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada. Paula has also trained at the Bench.
Paula is a core member of Roschier’s dispute resolution team, which has been top-ranked by leading international independent legal directories, including Chambers Europe, The Legal 500, the GAR 100 and Who’s Who Legal.
Paula is the exclusive winner of the 2022 Client Choice Litigation award for Finland. According to clients Paula is “highly professional” and “always reliable when we need her most“. Clients further praise Paula for being “very well prepared“, and for providing “sensible and practical advice“.
Paula Airas’ experience includes advising:
- Various domestic and international companies (both industrial and PE) acting as counsel in various shareholder agreement disputes, and their post M&A disputes relating to e.g. purchase price calculation, preparation of closing accounts, earn-out rights, warranty matters, call-/put-options, walk-away rights, etc.;
- Large foreign conglomerates in several complex insolvency related disputes, with multinational links;
- Clients in matters relating to insolvency proceedings, impacts of threatening or actual insolvency (e.g. adviced the restructuring and later bankruptcy administration of Top-Toy in various insolvency related matters relating to the Finnish branch of the Danish company)
- Clients and representing them before Finnish courts in matters involving company law, board liability and white collar crime;
- In arbitration proceedings and acting as counsel and arbitrator under a variety of arbitration rules such as FAI, SCC and ICC, as well as in ad hoc proceedings. Acting as counsel and representing clients in ancillary court proceedings.
- Clients and representing them in interim relief proceedings before the national courts, including asset seizure and injunctions as well as their cross-border enforcement, etc.;
- Foreign and domestic clients in questions relating to EU sanctions regime in e.g. trade compliance and exit processes; and
- Clients in matters relating to product liability.
Roschier (2008-)
Fennovoima Oy, Visiting Lawyer (1-3/2019)
Law clerk, trained at the Bench (2012)
Member of the Finnish Bar Association
Member of the Finnish Arbitration Association
Member of the Young Arbitration Club Finland
Member of the Swedish Arbitration Association (SAA)
Member of the Young International Arbitration Group of the London Centre for International Arbitration (YIAG)
Member of ICC YAF
Member of the Finnish Insolvency Law Association
Member of INSOL International
FAI Finnish Arbitration Academy (2015)
University of Lapland, LL.M. (2008)
English, Finnish, Swedish, French
