Jacob Sand

Professional profile

Jacob Sand heads the firm's Labour & Employment practice group. Jacob specialises in a broad range of employment law issues. Having worked for more than 3½ years as a Legal Secretary at the European Court of Justice and having acted as an active advocate before the EU Court, Jacob has state-of-the-art knowledge and understanding of all aspects of EU employment law. Jacob Sand combines this knowledge with profound insight into collective labour law. This means that he is one of the most widely used litigators in Labour Court cases.

Jacob Sand has conducted numerous arbitration and court cases before the Supreme Court, Labour Court and other tribunals, including industrial tribunals. Jacob advises clients in a wide variety of different industries, for instance energy, transportation, financial services providers, telecommunications and media. In addition, he has acted as referee in the Danish Entrepreneurship award and as assessor to the former director of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) in the investigation committee (Tibetkommissionen) established by the Danish Minister of Justice.

Jacob Sand is part-time associate professor at Aarhus University and frequently gives lectures to Danish and European lawyers, academics and HR managers. In 2018, Jacob Sand was one of the co-authors on the memorial volume to the Danish Salaried Employees Act in connection with the 80-year anniversary of the act. He is on the Board of Trustees of Academy of European Law: ERA, Trier, Germany and on the Board of the Association of Danish Employment Lawyers. He has for numerous years been ranked as part of the Hall of Fame for Danish employment lawyers (Legal500) and a band 1 employment lawyer (Chambers Europe).

Significant cases
The Norlys Energy Trading case: Jacob Sand assisted 23 former employees, including 4 former members of the executive management of Centrica, a leading energy trading company in the latter's request for injunctions preventing the employees from take up their new employment. The employees all joined Norlys Energy Trading a brand new competing company and served their notices within a period of 6 weeks. Centrica alleged that the terminations were coordinated and an act of manifest disloyal behavior. The court rejected these allegations.

The Solesi case: Jacob Sand has assisted in a long range of the most significant Danish cases conducted regarding the secondment of employees to Denmark, including the Solesi case which concerns Italian employees seconded to major construction works in Denmark. The Solesi case involved a number of fundamental EU law issues.

The obesity (Kaltoft) case: On the strength of his extensive EU law experience, Jacob litigated the obesity case both before the EU Court of Justice and before the Danish courts of law. The issue of this case was to determine whether obesity may constitute a disability. The judgment handed down by the EU Court of Justice attracted global attention and counted as a landmark case in Europe at the time. Having litigated the case, Jacob Sand was appointed "Lawyer of the Week" by The Times, a title that has neither before nor after been awarded to any other Danish lawyer.)

Career and education

Career

Gorrissen Federspiel 2005 -
Partner, Gorrissen Federspiel since 2008 
Bech-Bruun Dragsted 2002 - 2005
Legal Secretary with the European Court of Justice, 1998 - 2002
Aros Advokater 1995 - 1998
Bech-Bruun & Trolle 1992 - 1995

Education

Right of audience before the Danish Supreme Court 2005
Admitted to the Danish Bar 1995
LL.M., European University Institute, Florence 1992
Master of Laws, Aarhus University 1991

Language

English, French

Ratings

Jacob Sand is for 16 years in a row ranked in Chambers Europe 2024 again this year as Top ranked lawyer (band 1) and as Member of Hall of Fame and Leading Individual in Legal 500 (2024). Jacob Sand is rated as Thought Leader in Who's Who Legal: Labour & Employment (2024)

Publications

Co-author of "Den kommenterede virksomhedsoverdragelseslov" (The Commented Act on Posting of Workers), [DJØF) 2024
"Hovedtørklæder - nyt fra EU-Domstolen" (Headscarfs - news from the Court of Justice of the European Union) in the Danish journal EU-ret & Menneskeret (DJØF Publishing), no. 2, 2017, p. 5 ff.
Co-author of Arbejdsretsnøglen (DJØF), 2014 -
Publications: The Danish monthly, Advokaten, no. 9 2015, Ligebehandling: Når bagateller kommer til behandling (Equal treatment: When trivial matters are being heard)
EELC Publication number 2015-3, 2015/28, p. 23 - 26, "Supreme Court follows up on ECJ's judgment in Ring and Werge"
American Bar Association International Labor & Employment Law Committee Newsletter, January 2015: Obesity May Constitute a Disability According to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)
International Labor and Employment Laws, chapter about Danmark, Bloomberg BNA, 2022
Co-author of the International Comparative Legal Guide to Corporate Immigration, Denmark chapter, 2014
Arbejdsgivers Kontrolbeføjelser - nye muligheder og nye udfordringer (The Employer's Supervision Powers - new possibilities and new challenges), HR Jura Magazine, no. 4 p. 42 ff, 2013
Co-author of Sourcing World, European Lawyer Reference, 2012
"Strukturreformen - nye væsentlige domme om ændringer i ansættelsesforhold" (The Municipal Reform - new essential judgments in cases concerning changes in the employment) in the monthly magazine Stads- & Havneingeniøren, January 1, 2006, p. 22 ff
"Forbud mod diskrimination af direktører" (Prohibition against discrimination of CEOs) in the monthly Advokaten, March 2006
"Den danske model i et integreret Europa - Festskrift i anledning af Einar Edelbergs 40 års jubilæum" (The Danish model in an integral Europe - a Festschrift on the occasion of Einer Edelberg's 40th anniversary), DJØF, 2004
Various articles on employment law in the daily Jyllands-Posten, 2003-2004
Co-author of "Den kommenterede virksomhedsoverdragelseslov" (The commented act on the transfer of undertakings), DJØF, 2002
Author of Chapter 17 "Transportation" in EU-Karnov, 2002, 2003 and 2005

Memberships and Activities

Memberships

The American Bar Association (ABA)
European Employment Lawyers Association (EELA)
Danish Association of Experienced Supreme Court Litigators
The Danish Labour & Employment Association
Friends of ERA (Europäische Rechtsakademie) Association
EUI Alumni
Vinsa - Company Network for Social Responsibility
Danish Labour Law Attorneys
Foreningen Arbejdsretlig Forskningsfond - Hasselbalchfonden (The Labour Law Research Foundation - The Hasselbalch Foundation)

Activities

Board of Trustees, Academy of European Law, Trier Germany, 2020 -
Boardmember: Labour Law Attorneys (Danish Association of Employment Lawyers) 2010 - 2016 and 2019 -
Part-time lecturer in Danish labour law in an international perspective, Aarhus University
Part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Aarhus University, 2010
Lecturer of various Labour & Employment law courses for the Danish Bar Association, the Association of Danish Lawyers and Economists, the Court Administration, etc.
Lecturer of Labour & Employment law, Aarhus Business College, 1996-1998