Tor Erling Staff (22 February 1933 – 22 July 2018) was a Norwegian

criminal defense lawyer A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the Defense (legal), defense of individuals and companies charged with Criminal law, criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while other ...

. He was particularly known for taking controversial cases. Staff was born in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. As a student he chaired the

Norwegian Students' Society Norwegian Students' Society () is Norway's oldest student society. The Norwegian Students' Society was established during 1813 in Oslo, Norway. Two years after the Royal Frederick University (today named the University of Oslo) was founded, 18 of ...

in Oslo in the spring of 1956, graduating with the cand.jur. degree in 1958. He started working for barrister Olaf Trampe Kindt and for stipendiary magistrate Christian Bernt Apenes. He continued his studies in the United States. From 1967 he worked as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

in Oslo and at the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

References

1933 births 2018 deaths Lawyers from Oslo University of Oslo alumni Norwegian LGBTQ lawyers 20th-century Norwegian lawyers {{Norway-law-bio-stub