Geir Lippestad

Geir Lippestad was born 7 June 1964 in Hønefoss, in the Ringerike district in Buskerud county. His family name originates from Lippestad farm in Tomter in Østfold. His great grandfather Carl Thorvald Lippestad left the farm and relocated to Oslo at the end of the 19th century. Lippestad's parents, originally from Nordstrand in Oslo had moved to the village of Heradsbygd outside of Hønefoss, where his father worked as an engineer. When Lippestad was six years old, the family of five moved back to Nordstrand. After finishing high school he enrolled in the University of Oslo, studying law. He obtained the cand.jur. degree in the autumn of 1990.

Geir Lippestad is married to registered nurse Signe Lippestad (née Husebye). Combined they have eight children, two of them together. Lippestad has two from his previous marriage, and his wife has four from her previous marriage. The entire family resides in the Nordstrand suburb in southern Oslo.

Two of the children were born with disabilities and one of them, 16-year-old Rebekka, was critically ill early in 2012, in the midst of Lippestad's preparations for the Breivik trial. She pulled through the crisis which also coincided with Lippestad's wife giving birth to a baby girl, Mille Madicken. Rebekka died on June 14, 2013.

Lippestad has been an active member of the Norwegian Labour Party, and deputy chair of its Nordstrand local chapter. In April 2013, he was invited as a keynote speaker at the annual Labour party congress. During his speech to the delegates, he spoke about humanity and human values. He sharply criticised the treatment of Roma people in the city of Oslo.

In December 2013, Lippestad was appointed chairman of the new left-wing think tank Agenda. The think-tank was established with support from the trade union centre as well as the Labour party and intended as a left-wing counter-weight to the influential liberal think-tank Civita.

In 2014 it was revealed that the Labour Party was considering Lippestad as a mayoral candidate for Oslo in the 2015 local elections due to him being a highly respected person who could possibly rival the popular incumbent conservative mayor Fabian Stang. The Labour party had not had a mayor of Oslo in 20 years, and a majority of the Oslo chapter felt that Lippestad possessed the "broad appeal" necessary to pose serious challenge to mayor Stang. In September 2014 however, Lippestad told the party that he did not want to be nominated. In the 2015 Norwegian local elections he was instead elected as a member of Oslo city council. He also served as Oslo City Commissioner for Trade and Ownership from 2015 to 2017.

In 2020, he co-founded a new political party named Sentrum (The Centre). By December 2020 the party had collected the 5000 signatures needed to take part in the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election.

After graduating and receiving his law degree in 1990, Lippestad was employed at a small law-firm in Harestua, a small rural town outside of Oslo. Later he moved to the Association of Norwegian Insurance Companies, where he worked as a legal counsel. Afterwards he, along with a colleague, started a private law-firm based in Nedre Slottsgate street in down-town Oslo. It was while working here that Lippestad first came to the national spotlight, when he represented Ole Nicolai Kvisler, who was later convicted of participation in the racially motivated murder of Benjamin Hermansen in 2002. Kvisler received a 17-year prison sentence.

Three years later, Lippestad left the firm when he was appointed secretary-general at the National Association of the Hearing Impaired (Norwegian: Hørselshemmedes Landsforbund), Lippestad applied to this position due to his daughter Rebekka, who was born with a severe hearing impairment. In 2009 he was one of the contenders for the position of Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, but lost to Sunniva Ørstavik. He then decided to return to private practice and in 2010 he opened his own law-firm called Advokatkontoret Lippestad AS.

The 22 July trial

In July 2011, he was appointed as defence counsel for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, after the latter specifically requested him. His co-lead counsel was Vibeke Hein Bæra, and they were assisted by assistant counsels Tord Jordet and Odd Ivar Grøn, both of whom are employed at his law firm.

Before the trial Lippestad told the French newspaper Le Monde: "I feel I have lost my soul in this case [...] I hope to get it back once it's over – and that it will be in the same condition as before."

At the trial, Lippestad chose not to argue for the innocence of his client, although Breivik himself had specifically requested to be acquitted due to the legal principle of necessity. In his closing arguments, Lippestad asked only for his client to be found sane and to be sentenced leniently without mentioning the subject of culpability. In a bizarre moment of confusion, the presiding judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen asked Lippestad if he would request an acquittal for his client, to which Lippestad replied that he would not. Breivik then interceded and told Lippestad; "You've got to do it!" after which Lippestad formally requested an acquittal.

Although Lippestad successfully argued before the court that his client was legally sane and competent, Breivik was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty of 21 years in containment. The prosecution had asked for Breivik to be formally acquitted and found legally insane, and sentenced to mandatory psychiatric confinement. This was rejected by the court. After the sentencing of Breivik, Lippestad formally transferred the legal responsibility of his client within the law-firm to Tord Jordet, thereby ceasing to be his official defence attorney.