Sigurd Lorentzen

Sigurd Juell Lorentzen (5 August 1916 – 25 January 1979) was a Norwegian judge and civil servant.

He was born in Sunndal, and was a brother of professor Gustav Fredrik Lorentzen. He married judge Lelia Marie Loe in 1957. They resided in Bærum.[1]

He enrolled as a student in 1934,[1] graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1938, and worked as a secretary in Trustkontrollkontoret from 1939 to 1940 and in the Norwegian Price Directorate from 1940 to 1945. After a brief time in the Ministry of Finance in 1945,[2] to which he was summoned by Wilhelm Thagaard,[3] he returned to the Price Directorate and remained here until 1949. He was a deputy under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Finance from 1951 to 1960, permanent under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Transport from 1960 to 1972 and a Supreme Court Justice from 1972 to 1979.[2]

When hired as deputy under-secretary in 1951, Lorentzen edged out applicants who were generally believed to be better qualified, especially Einar Grøstad. This was a personal decision by Minister of Finance Trygve Bratteli.[4] Lorentzen was the youngest of the applicants, and the second youngest permanent under-secretary in the Ministry at the time.[3] He was also known to be, as a person, quite similar to Trygve Bratteli.[5] He became quite strong; historian Einar Lie has noted that "in reality", the permanent under-secretary of state Friedrich Georg Nissen did not function "as a real superior to Lorentzen".[6] In 1957, both Grøstad and Lorentzen applied to become the successor of Nissen as permanent under-secretary, the highest position in the Ministry. However, this time Trygve Bratteli chose economist Eivind Erichsen; Grøstad and Lorentzen were both jurists.[7] Einar Lie has called this "likely [...] the only defeat in Lorentzen's own career".[8] Soon, Lorentzen developed a reserved relation to Erichsen as well as Per Kleppe—principally, though, since the latter two were economists and Lorentzen was a jurist. Einar Lie wrote that when Trygve Bratteli brought Lorentzen to the Ministry of Transport, he "solved" a problem. It also paved the way for up-and-coming economist Hermod Skånland.[9]

Lorentzen was also the chairman of the Norwegian Association of Lawyers from 1966 to 1971 and the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund.[1]

References
  1. Steenstrup, Bjørn, ed. (1973). "Lorentzen, Sigurd Juell". Hvem er hvem? (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 349. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  2. Lie, Einar (1995). Ambisjon og tradisjon. Finansdepartementet 1945–1965 (in Norwegian). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. p. 455.
  3. Lie, 1995: p. 198
  4. Lie, 1995: pp. 197–198
  5. Lie, 1995: pp. 201–202
  6. Lie, 1995: p. 341
  7. Lie, 1995: pp. 333–335
  8. Lie, 1995: p. 337
  9. Lie, 1995: p. 350
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