About Gjert Melsom As the Blockchain lawyer of the year, partner Gjert Melsom is one of Norway’s most acknowledged for TMT Tax, hereunder IP, technology and E-commerce. He has worked with TMT legal and tax for 35 years. Among others, Gjert has written a licentiate degree on tax and IP, he was part of the OECD group that made the tax treaty rules on E-commerce, he regularly lectures at BI Norwegian Business School, the Norwegian Lawyers Association, etc. Gjert is recognised as the most experienced lawyer in Norway on decentralised and blockchain structures and business models. He has been a key note speaker related to international tax questions on blockchain structures, and advises both Norwegian and international clients on how to scale blockchain-related concepts within a tax & legal framework. He has for several years been awarded as a Ban 1 lawyer in Norway on international tax e.g. in Chambers and Legal 500. About Anthon Søegaard Anthon is a senior manager at EY’s international tax practice. He leads the hands-on tax assessments on several TMT and blockchain-related projects. He advices clients how to navigate within a space influenced by regulatory uncertainty and how to structure effective operating tax models designed for scaling. He lectures at the Norwegian Business School and the Norwegian Lawyers Association and was included in International Tax Reviews EMEA Rising Stars 2022 shortlist. About Mads Ribe Mads Ribe is an associate partner at EY Law and the Norwegian Legal Operations Lead. He holds a Norwegian honors degree in Law, LLM of Maritime Law from National University of Singapore and MBA from IE Business School, Madrid. Mads assists clients in commercial matters, related to technology (e.g. blockchain, IT contracts, AI, etc.), legal operations (legal operating model effectiveness, managed services, legal tech and design, etc.) and corporate legal matters. He is a core member of EY Law’s blockchain and legal tech competencies, supporting on financial regulatory classifications on crypto-currencies and token issuance, legal opinions and related contracts and terms. Firm Profile EY Tax & Law (EY) is Norway’s sixth largest law firm with 256 employees, 83 lawyers, and 28 partners. The TMT department consists of appr. 10 full-time professionals. TMT is led by Mads Ribe and Gjert Melsom (Tax), with Anthon Søegaard as key senior lawyer on the team. The EY TMT team has advised more than 50 Norwegian and international clients on how to scale blockchain-related concepts within a tax & legal framework. Issues include everything from core blockchain tech solutions to crypto and the token economy, such as DeFi, DAOs, NFTs, metaverse, etc. The team has focused on helping blockchain developers understand that the utilization of the technology often results in the creation of complex financial products that has not previously existed. Hence, the tax and regulatory challenges must be carefully considered in the technical design phase. The main objective has been to advice developers on how to utilize the opportunities the technology provides while also minimizing the risk of upcoming regulatory breaches and unintended tax implications. The teams advisory services has in general covered mining companies, tokenization of various tangible and intangible assets, social media platform players, global mining companies, crypto exchanges, solar panels producers, a gas terminal builder, digital payment operators, crypto fund managers, real property developers, decentralised data storage, fashion industry, food producers, individuals with cryptocurrencies, etc. Finally a large focus area within EY’s TMT and emerging tech clients has been sustainability. How can blockchain and AI be used to collect and share data efficiently to capture data on sustainability metrics? Sustainable finance is a growing sector and we believe the use of technology and distributed ledgers are the perfect match to collect, verify and apply data to confirm sustainable projects and to ensure financial reporting in accordance with the EU Taxonomy and growing requirements from the industry. Finance Monthly Legal Awards 2022 Norway www.finance-monthly.com 53
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