Martin Hirvoja

Martin Hirvoja

Attorney at law, partner

martin.hirvoja@advokaat.ee  +372 52 19 273

in English

”Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought”,  Sun Tzu  − The Art of War

My main focus as an attorney has been dispute resolution.  Thorough preparation is the cornerstone of a succussful solution in any legal dispute.  Often the best battle is the one avoided, but as a rule this happens upon the best possible terms only if the opposing party also understands that the other side is well prepared for court. It all starts from clearing the objectives with a client, working throroughly through all the important case material and doing legal diagnostics based on that.  In novel or rare cases I have often found it useful to consult also with German- (mostly in civil procedure) and Anglo-American (mostly in criminal procedure) legal sources (legislation, court practice, academic journals) in their original languages.  Whether a lawsuit or some other legal action will bear its weight depends much on the groundwork. From my years in working as a prosecutor and as an attorney, I have most experience in white collar crime.  From my years at the Ministry of Justice I also have a hands on experience in numerous major legislative and legal policy initiatives.

Professional experience:

  • Attorney at law, partner, Law Office Lillo & Partnerid (from November 2022)
  • Attornery at law, of counsel, Law Office Magnusson (2017−2022)
  • Senior counsel, Law Office Magnusson (2016−2017)
  • Legal and business consultations (2014−2016)
  • Member of the management board, Enterprise Estonia (2012−2014)
  • Deputy Secretary General and Director of the Legal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Estonia (2009−2012)
  • Deputy Secretary General and Director of the Criminal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Estonia (2005−2009)
  • Chief Prosecutor, Nordic District Prosecutor´s Office (2004−2005)
  • Chief Prosecutor, Tallinn Prosecutor´s Office (2003−2004)
  • State Prosecutor, Office of the Prosecutor General (2003)
  • Prosecutor and development adviser, Office of the Prosecutor General (2002−2003)
  • Prosecutor, Pärnu Prosecutor´s Office (2000−2002)
  • Assistant prosecutor, Pärnu Prosecutor´s Office (1998−2000)

Education:

  • Tartu University Faculty of Law (1995−1999)
  • Souhegan High School, Amherst, New Hampshire, USA (1993−1994)
  • Pärnu Sütevaka Humanitaargümnaasium (1992−1995)

Languages:

Estonian, English, Russian, German

Participation in organizations:

  • Member of the Estonian Bar Association (since 2017)
  • Estonian Chamber of Auditors, member of the supervisory board (2010−2014)
  • Member of the Government National Security Subcommitte (2007−2010)
  • Estonian Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration, member of the board (2009−2012)
  • Juridica. The academic legal journal of the University of Tartu, Member of the Editorial Board (2009−2012)
  • Member of the first Anti-Corruption Expert Panel to the Government of Estonia. Participation in the drafting of the first government Anti-Corruption Strategy for Estonia (2002−2003)

Publications on law:

  • Deterrent damages in Estonian and German law of obligations and their relationship with the punitive damages concept. Juridica. The academic legal journal of the University of Tartu. (www.juridica.ee ) 2011 nr.1 pg 47-58
  • Participation in crime. General Part. Penal Law. Sisekaitseakadeemia kirjastus, Tallinn 2002
  • Crimes against persons, -public health, -public trust. Malfeasances of officials. Special Part. Penal Law. Sisekaitseakadeemia kirjastus, Tallinn 2002
  • Administrative contract and its main legal features. Juridica. The academic legal journal of the University of Tartu. 1999 nr. 7, lk 323-335

Additional info:

Selection of projects (portfolio):

The below mostly covers my activities in public sector or upon procurement contracts until 2017, as later work is mostly covered with business and/or attorney´s confidentiality

Member of the Management Board, Enterprise Estonia (Foundation, EE, www.eas.ee), 2012−2014. EE is the main business support organization in Estonia and it advances the growth of Estonian companies, their technology and product development and export capacity. EE is also tasked with attracting foreign investment to Estonia, increasing revenues from tourism and regional development of Estonia. EE is also responsible for utilizing the European Union structural funds, in 2007-2013 in the amount of 784 million euros(MEUR) to develop Estonian entrepreneurship and regional development through grants and its own activites. EE had 270 employees and its budget in 2013 was 110 MEUR. As the member of the management board I was directly responsible for attracting foreign investment to Estonia (www.investinestonia.com), supporting the export of our companies (www.tradewithestonia.com), increasing Estonia`s revenues from tourism (www.visitestonia.com), for the brand Estonia development to support the abovementioned goals (www.brand.estonia.eu) and for the network of EE foreing representatives of investment, export and tourism in 10 countries. In addition I was temporarily responsible also for the legal, financial, IT and companies technology development units. Highlights:

  • Creation of the legal unit and setting in legal checks when giving state aid (subsidies) in order to secure the compliance to the law of EE activites
  • Setting up the team and getting preparations going for Estonia to participate at the Milano World Expo 2015. 140 countries participated at the Expo and Estonian pavillion was awarded bronze medal
  • Launching the new marketing strategy for Estonia, the first project within that strategy was a joint campaign in cooperation with Robbie Williams and his concert in Tallinn in August 2013 to reach with a multiplying effect through various channels up to 30 million people around the world with the message about Estonia. In 2014 EE team received for this campaign the Best Marketing “2013 Marketing Team of the Year” award
  • Launching the systematic marketing of Estonia as the sea tourism destination at the largest Northern European boat fair Hanseboot as the 2013 partner country
  • Launching the first EE payed service – export partner search – to be performed by the export counsellors, expanding the EE export councellors network to Norway, Denmark, Germany and UK
  • Initiating the marketing of Estonia as a great place to live and work and creating a channel for that purpose (www.workinestonia.com ) Read more: http://estonianworld.com/opinion/martin-hirvoja-estonia-to-attract-foreign-talents/
  • Launching the Estonian international information and communications technology event “Estonian ICT Week” (the first one took place in April 23-30.2014 in Tallinn) in cooperation with the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications and the Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia, to bring the world IT opinion leaders, venture capital and startups together; See more: http://estonia.eu/ictweek/

Deputy Secretary General (asekantsler) and Director of the Legal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Estonia (www.just.ee), 2009−2012. The Legal Policy Department’s main tasks are: coordinating and developing the legal policy of the country in the area of public-, private- and the corresponding European Union (EU) law. Direct policy and legal drafting responsibility lies within in the areas of constitutional-, administrative-, data protection-, civil- , bankruptcy- , business law as well as civil- and administrative court procedure legislation and the respective areas within the EU and international law, harmonizing other ministries’ draft legislation with the general principles of Estonian legal order, starting and coordinating better regulation and regulatory impact assessment system. Department consists of 3 units: 1) private law unit, 2) public law unit and 3) legislative drafting coordination unit. Altogether, 29 people work for the department. In addition, the department provides ministerial support and budgeting for the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (AKI, www.aki.ee). Highlights:

  • General part of the public commercial code, incl. harmonization with the EU services directive, together with amendments in numerous special laws on economic activities (DE: Wirtschaftsverwaltungsrecht-Gewerbeordnung) [adopted by the Parliament 22.02.2011], which was chosen as the 2011 MOJ Entrepreneurship friendly act of the year
  • Introducing deterrent damages within the law of obligations [adopted by the Parliament 25.11.2010]
  • Provisions enabling the establishing of a limited liability company with zero down payment [in force since 01.01.2011];
  • Chairing the better regulation and  codification committees of the intellectual property, environmental law, building and planning law.

Deputy Secretary General (asekantsler) and Director of the Criminal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Estonia (www.just.ee) 2005−2009. The main tasks of the Criminal Policy Department are drafting legislation in the area of criminal- and criminal procedure-, public order-, prosecution service- and forensic expertise law; European Union III pillar (Justice and Home Affairs) initiatives (prev. framework decisions) input by the department’s and the administration of the prosecution service and forensics institute. Highlights:

  • Legislation enabling a fast procedure for petty crimes [enacted 2006, chosen as the project of the year of the Ministry of Justice in 2006]
  • Public Order Protection Act (DE: Gefahrenabwehrgesetz) was one of the last missing cornerstone legislation in Estonia and it regulates in addition to the police activities also any supervisory actions taken by other public offices and inspections in defence of the legal order [adopted by the Parliament 22.02.2011]
  • Initiation of the E-dossier system. (e-toimik) The E-dossier system is a far going IT solution with the ultimate aim to enable fully digital procedure in criminal- civil- and administrative court proceedings
  • Initiating and implementing an IT system enabling consolidated statistics for the entire chain of criminal justice (police-prosecution-court-probation-prison)
  • Legislation reforming the entire economic crime regulation [enacted 15.05.2007] that thoroughly modernized crime definitions in the field of white collar crime, including intellectual property-, tax-, securities- and competition(antitrust) crimes
  • Legislation introducing electronic surveillance for early release prisoners [enacted 2006]
  • Legislation intruducing expanded confiscation of criminal proceeds [enacted 01.02.2007]
  • Merging the forensics medicine lab within the Ministry of Justice and criminal forensic center within Ministry of Interior into the united Estonian Forensics Expertise Institute (EKEI, www.ekei.ee within the Ministry of Justice [in force starting 2008]
  • Legislation criminalizing attempted participation in a serious crime (e.g. murder) [in force]
  • Legislation introducing anti-cartel leniency programme (changes within the criminal procedure code and competition act) [in force 27.02.2010]
  • The new Anti-Corruption Act [has been handed to the Parliament by the Government in 2009]
  • Legislation criminalizing identity theft [enacted as law on 15.11.2009] Estonia has been among the first EU countries to criminalize identity theft, incl online, also incl. cases where only immaterial damage to person’s rights have been caused

Chief Prosecutor, Nordic District Prosecutor’s Office (www.prokuratuur.ee), (2004−2005) and Tallinn Prosecutor’s Office (2003−2004). Highlights:

  • Merging the previous Tallinn and Harju County prosecution offices into the Nordic District Prosecution Office; personnel and remuneration reform of the largest lawyers’ office in Estonia (altogether over 100 employees, incl. 80 prosecutors), by which a differentiated career system was created – division of prosecutors between those who lead the investigation in more complex cases and handle the new adversarial trial proceedings (30%) and those who handle simplified criminal proceedings (70%); creation of special cases prosecutors institution on corruption and other organized crime
  • Arranging the application of the new code of criminal procedure since July 2004
  • Formation of crime-type specialized 5 departments within the office: 1. drug crimes and crimes against person; 2. economic crimes, incl. corruption; 3. juveniles; 4. crimes against property; 5. public order, traffic and other crimes
  • In 2005, the Nordic Prosecutor’s Office initiated together with the Nordic Police a task force and a special programme against street robberies in Tallinn, contributing to the over 30% reduction of this type of crime during 2006

Prosecutor (prokurör), Pärnu Prosecutor’s Office (2000−2002). Handled more than 200 cases on 40 different types of crime from investigation supervision to court trial proceedings – from ordinary mass crimes like theft and public order violations to sophisticated white collar crime cases as the experience grew.

Lectures and conferences:

Lecturer of penal-, criminal procedure- and administrative law to practicing lawyers, judges, prosecutors and investigators, numerous presentations at professional conferences