Jaakko Hietala is a partner in Bird & Bird's Helsinki office, and is head of the Finnish Real Estate Group. He specialises in M&A, corporate, real estate and employment & benefits matters.

Jaakko’s expertise includes the financing of real estate transactions, advising both providers of finance as well as investors and other borrowers in connection with real estate transactions. Additionally, Jaakko has an outstanding reputation in the field of sport and entertainment, and provides advice to clients such as the leading organisers of live concerts and motorsport events in Finland.

Jaakko was educated at the University of Helsinki (LLM). He is an active member of the Finnish Industrial Property Rights Association, Finnish Association for Arbitration and the Association of Board Professionals. Jaakko’s positions of trust include, among others, the chairmanship of the Court of Appeal at the AKK Motorsports ry (Finnish Automobile Sports Federation). AKK is the national member organisation of FIA.