20th-century Norwegian lawyers

Otto Sverdrup Engelschiøn (30 October 1902 – 8 May 1982) was a Norwegian marketer, businessperson, resistance member and genealogist.
He was born in Kristiania as a son of consul-general Søren Dass Brodtkorb Sverdrup Engelschiøn (1867–1909) and Janka Hansen (1869–1935). In 1928 he married Gudrun Irgens Garmann.Engelschiøn finished his secondary education in 1922 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.jur. degree in 1926. He was an attorney from 1927, and also director of I. Sverdrup Engelschiøn which had the rights to distribute Swedish Tomten products in Norway. In 1929 it was merged with Norsk Barnengens Tekniske Fabrik. Engelschiøn spent the rest of his career in the company, from 1929 as director of the sales and marketing department and from 1948 to 1968 as co-owner.In the 1930s he was a member of Nasjonal Samling. He left the party in the 1937 party split, continuing though in the Ragnarok group around national socialist Hans S. Jacobsen, and edited the magazine Ragnarok in 1940. In 1940, however, Norway was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. Engelschiøn joined the resistance movement and was the head of intelligence in Milorg's District 13, Division 3 (Asker and Bærum) from 1943 to 1945. He received the Defence Medal 1940–1945 with rosette.Engelschiøn chaired the Norwegian Genealogical Society from 1957 to 1968, and thereafter served as deputy chairman. He was also a bibliophile, chairing Bibliofilklubben twice as well as the contest jury for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year. Engelschiøn also issued a crime novel under a pseudonym.He resided in Bærum. He died in 1982 and was buried at Haslum.

Jens Christian Mellbye (4 February 1914 – 31 March 1993) was a Norwegian judge. He served as a Supreme Court Justice from 1968 to 1992.
He was born in Oslo as a son of barrister Gunnar Lange Mellbye (1884–1958) and Aagot Maartmann-Moe (1888–1980). He was a brother of Fredrik Mellbye, grandson of Christian Mellbye and first cousin once removed of Johan E. Mellbye. He finished his secondary education at Ris in 1931 and attended the Norwegian Military Academy from 1931 to 1932. He gradually advanced to Captain. In 1938 he took the cand.jur. degree. He was a deputy judge in Skien District Court before being hired as junior solicitor in his father's law firm. He was a barrister with access to working with Supreme Court cases from 1946. During the legal purge in Norway after World War II, Mellbye served as a public prosecutor from 1945 to 1946 and prosecutor in the Supreme Court from 1946 to 1951.He was a defender in Oslo City Court from 1951 to 1961, and in the Supreme Court from 1961 to 1968. He was the chairman of the Norwegian Bar Association from 1965 to 1968. He also chaired the Intelligence Oversight Committee for many years. From 1968 to 1992 he served as a Supreme Court Justice.Mellbye was decorated as a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1978. He had three children with his wife Ellen Ring Hartmann, whom he married in 1939. He died in March 1993 in Oslo.

Lauritz Jenssen Dorenfeldt (3 February 1909 – 15 April 1997) was a Norwegian jurist.

Knut Blom (14 February 1916 – 6 February 1996) was a Norwegian judge. He served as a Supreme Court Justice from 1968 to 1986.
He was born in Kristiania as a son of barrister Hans Jensen Blom (1875–1952) and Anna Martens Wingaard (1877–1947). He was a great-grandson of Oluf Petersen Wingaard. He finished his secondary education in 1934, started law studies and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1939. He was hired as a junior solicitor under Carl Fridtjof Rode in Melbu in the same year, and took over the attorney's office when Rode was called to naval duty shortly thereafter. From 1940 to 1942 Blom was a deputy judge in Jæren District Court, and from 1942 he was a junior solicitor under Sven Arntzen; from 1947 a partner. During the German occupation of Norway Blom had contacts in Hjemmefrontens Ledelse.Blom was a lawyer until 1968, and worked as a defender in Oslo City Court from 1953 to 1956, Eidsivating Court of Appeal from 1956 to 1965 and the Supreme Court of Norway from 1965 to 1968. From 1968 to his retirement in 1986 he was a Supreme Court Justice. Legal-academic books include Sakførerens rettslige ansvar (1947) and Prisloven med kommentarer (1954).He was decorated with the Defence Medal 1940–1945 and in 1978 the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. He died in February 1996 in Oslo.

Trygve de Lange (3 September 1918 – 12 February 1981) was a Norwegian lawyer and secretary-general of Libertas.
He was born in Kristiania, took his examen artium in 1937 and the cand.jur. degree at the University of Oslo in 1941. He edited the periodical Minerva from 1938 to 1939, and was deputy chair of the Norwegian Students' Society in 1940. In 1942 he married Lulla Bagn (1918–2003). After World War II he opened a lawyer's office.When Libertas was founded to promote libertarian ideas after World War 2 in order to counteract the social democratic tendency of the time, de Lange was hired as the first secretary-general.In 1955, de Lange was hired part-time as finance secretary in the Conservative Party by the party's general secretary, Leif Helberg. John Lyng belonged to those who wanted de Lange as general secretary of the Conservative Party, while primarily C.J. Hambro and Alv Kjøs provided for the final break with Libertas around 1960. The beginning of this settlement was Liberta's launch of the program "Will to power", where it was proposed to give young, talented politicians positions in business, so they could get to know business next to his political work. Libertas proposed concrete political programs and alternative state budgets, but was opposed by the Conservatives' central government, which stated that "the independence of the parties is an absolute prerequisite for a clear responsibility in political life." Kjøs believed that Libertas should simply be shut down. Lars Roar Langslet and others in the circle around Minerva criticized market liberalism as such. Libertas was forced to become a pure information organization and refrain from playing in purely political matters, and the Conservatives could more easily cooperate with other bourgeois parties.De Lange had many supporters, some of whom wanted to recruit him to the leadership of the Conservative Party. As de Lange retired in 1976, Libertas faded into a more obscure existence, and it was disbanded and replaced by Liberalt Forskningsinstitutt in 1988. de Lange returned to the lawyer profession, and died in February 1981 in Oslo.

Gustav Heiberg Simonsen (4 April 1935 – 7 January 2018) was a Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Conservative Party.
He was born in Oslo as a son of barrister Jon Simonsen (1901–1976) and housewife Marie Louise Heiberg (1910–2007). He was the father of Marie Simonsen.He served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Oslo during the term 1985–1989. In early October 1985 he met regularly, covering for Anders C. Sjaastad. In total he met during 6 days of parliamentary session. He was a member of Oslo city council from 1999 to 2007 and deputy chair of Oslo Conservative Party from 2004 to 2006. He died on 7 January 2018 in Oslo, at the age of 82.