Today we are CMS Kluge

25 October 2021 – After 98 years as Kluge Advokatfirma, Kluge rebrands to CMS Kluge and formally becomes colleagues with more than 5,000 lawyers in 44 countries worldwide. 

"The business world is becoming more internationalized. Norwegian companies are increasingly requesting cross-border legal counsel. By becoming an integrated part of CMS, we will be able to meet this requirement in a much more seamless way than we have been able to in the past,” says Bjørnar Alterskjær, managing partner at CMS Kluge.

In mid-June this year, Kluge announced that the law firm would join CMS. A successful integration process has since been completed, as the name-change to CMS Kluge highlights. 

CMS Kluge will retain its current management and ownership model, but is able to draw upon shared CMS resources within IT, technology and competence development, plus gain direct access to CMS’ legal capacity and expertise globally.  

“We are a traditional industry, and we know that new technology will play an increasingly important role in how clients expect us to provide legal services going forward. Being part of a global CMS team allows us to take a leading role in this development, something we would not have been able to do on our own," says Bjørnar Alterskjær. 

CMS has 79 offices in 44 countries and employs more than 5,000 lawyers worldwide.

CMS and CMS Kluge have particularly strong synergies within the energy sector (renewables and oil and gas), M&A and technology. This represents significant opportunities to provide cross-border legal advice and transaction support.  

“Our Norwegian clients have already started to tap into the international competence, and our international CMS-colleagues have started engaging us here in Norway on cross-border projects,” says Bjørnar Alterskjær.

As an example, Kluge recently acted as lead legal counsel for Mowi ASA in connection with the refinancing of Mowi’s existing bank facility with a EUR 1,800 million secured revolving credit facility. CMS teams in Belgium, France, Poland and the UK supported the transaction.  

CMS Kluge has offices in Stavanger, Oslo and Bergen, and is established amongst the larger Norwegian business law firms. CMS aims to utilize CMS Kluge’s position to build up a Nordic platform for CMS.