It's Monday morning in Lillehammer, one of Norway's most precious jewel with its spectacular sceneries, high mountains and forest-clad hills. Eurojuris member Erik Alver, like most of his fellow citizens, spent his weekend outdoors enjoying his country's amazing landscapes and live his passion cycling and cross country skiing on one of the region's 2000 km ski trails.
This part of Scandinavia is renowned for its long and stable winters with excellent snow conditions. Every autumn and winter, national and international teams, olympic champions and elite skiers use the area as training grounds.
Last February, Lillehammer hosted one of Europe's most important sports events - the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. This 70-medal competition received unprecedented media coverage with numerous on-site sports journalists from all over the world, 210 000 spectators, 3170 volunteers, 95 000 Instagram and Twitter posts and 25 000 individuals using the #Lillehammer2016 hashtag
Erik Alver, Main Legal Consultant for the Winter Games 2016, spent incalculable hours supervising every detail, from employment, sponsors, transport and venue agreements to audiovisual rights, immaterial rights for design, logo and mascot and procurement, tax, VAT & customs.
'I'm living the dream' says Erik. 'When you are passionate about sports and you can make it your daily job, you no longer feel you're working. Everything becomes a fun and stimulating challenge'.
When he was asked to present his activity at the Eurojuris Congress in Tenerife in October 2014, Erik was approached by many colleagues eager to collaborate and create a Pan-European structure able to offer international legal support to large scale sports and cultural events.
Since then, other Eurojuris members such as Barbara Egger Russe (Innsbruck, Austria), Valérie Crèvecoeur (Mont-Saint-Aignan, France), Johannes Breyer (Frankfurt, Germany), Olivier Vibert and Thierry Clerc (Paris, France) have joined Erik, Founder of Advokatfirmaet Alver AS, in an effort to launch a highly skilled team of lawyers into the international sports and events arena.
It's a humbling experience' Erik adds. 'After more than 30 years in the business, you can still learn, share and grow'. 'Thanks to Eurojuris, this new adventure is possible'.
We are wishing the best of luck to Erik and his colleagues on their thrilling new project.
