Nokia's Chief Legal Officer Dies in Accident

Nokia's top legal office, Carl Belding died last week in an accident where he fell from a balcony of a Swiss hotel that he was staying in on a business trip. Belding headed up a team of over 150 lawyers based around the world for Nokia. He had joined the company at the beginning of last year after spending 20 years working at IBM.

He had been the first non-American to take the top legal post at IBM's EMEA division, and was said to be important enough within IBM to be able to command the use of the company's private jet. He is ranked by his peers as among the top five general counsels in Europe, and had recently been leading Nokia's legal battle over patents with Qualcomm.

A Nokia spokesperson said: "His death has been a great loss for all of us. Carl was a sharp legal mind, a great colleague and a good friend."

He leaves a wife and two children.

Posted to the site on 27th September 2007