Our business is to enable our clients’ success and ensure their legal protection. To acknowledge their versatile expertise and dedicated work towards our clients’ success, we appoint Marcus Blomfelt as Senior Counsel and Piia Raappana and Yanhuan Zhou as Counsels as of 1 October 2023. Marcus was previously counsel at Castrén & Snellman, while Piia and Yanhuan were senior associates.
28.9.2023
Marcus Blomfelt appointed as Senior Counsel and Piia Raappana and Yanhuan Zhou as Counsels
Marcus Blomfelt, Piia Raappana & Yanhuan Zhou
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Marcus Blomfelt, Senior Counsel, Dispute Resolution
Marcus Blomfelt is an experienced dispute lawyer who specialises in complex litigation and criminal cases. He has assisted companies and their management in various criminal proceedings, including white collar, corruption and environmental criminal cases. In addition to handling criminal cases with distinction, he has extensive experience in disputes relating to, among other things, commercial agreements, M&A, sale of goods and agency agreements.
Marcus has particular expertise in private enforcement of competition law and has acted as counsel in the largest damages cases based on competition law in Finland.
Piia Raappana, Counsel, Intellectual Property
Piia Raappana is an expert in intellectual property law and dispute resolution. Her expertise includes industrial property rights and copyright as well as matters related to commercial agreements. In addition, she is well-versed in marketing and consumer law, media law and sports law.
Piia provides IP advise to our clients also in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions and other transactions.
The latest Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars recognised Piia as a Rising Star.
Yanhuan Zhou, Counsel, Mergers & Acquisitions
Yanhuan Zhou has extensive experience in demanding mergers and acquisitions as well as in restructuring of international companies. She advises clients in a wide range of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in various fields, such as the food industry, wholesale and retail, and heavy industry. She also specialises in various corporate matters.
Yanhuan’s key expertise lies in complex M&A with a multinational aspect. Lately, she has worked on several arrangements in which Finnish companies have exited their Russian operations.
Our warmest congratulations to Marcus, Piia and Yanhuan for their new roles!
Read more: Castrén & Snellman appoints five new Senior Associates – an appointment also in Business Services
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Case published 9.3.2026
VR – Supreme Court decision clarifies working time practices
We successfully represented VR Group before the Supreme Court in a case concerning the meal break practice of commuter train drivers. On 6 February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in VR’s favour (decision KKO:2026:12), confirming that VR had the right to amend the commuter train drivers’ meal break practice in 2021 by rendering the break unpaid in accordance with the applicable collective agreement. This decision clarifies the interpretation of collective agreements and employment legislation as well as the limits of the employer’s right to direct work. Over 250 commuter train drivers challenged the unpaid meal break practice which VR introduced in April 2021. Before the change, meal breaks had a long history of being paid. The change was based on the train drivers’ collective agreement, which allows for meal breaks to be organised either as paid or unpaid time. The Supreme Court ruled that the scheduling and managing of breaks falls within the core area of the employer’s right to direct work. This increases the threshold for an established practice becoming a binding condition for the parties. Merely following a practice consistently and over a long period of time does not make the practice binding; instead, the employer’s intent to commit to the practice must be clearly evident from the employer’s conduct or other circumstances. As both alternatives – paid and unpaid – for organising meal breaks had been retained in the collective agreement despite other amendments over the years, it could not be considered that VR had intended to commit to the paid break practice and waive its right to direct work as regards break scheduling. It was also significant that the employment contracts explicitly referred only to the collective agreement as regards working time. The Supreme Court deemed that the employees’ paid meal break was not an established term of employment and that VR was entitled to change the practice based on the collective agreement. The employer had the right, by virtue of its right to direct work, to unilaterally change the meal break practice by choosing to apply the other arrangement permitted by the collective agreement.
Case published 3.3.2026
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Case published 27.2.2026
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Case published 20.2.2026