Sigríður Ásthildur Andersen is an Attorney at Law and a policy consultant in Reykjavík, Iceland. She offers general legal consulting, dispute resolution and litigation when needed. Sigríður has extensive knowledge of Icelandic public administration and government.

Sigríður sits on the board of the Central Bank of Iceland, elected by Alþingi parliament of Iceland on 24 March 2022.

Icelandic is the national language in Iceland. Sigríður also speaks English, Spanish and Danish. Her high school French awaits improvements.

Career

Sigríður was a member of the Alþingi parliament of Iceland for the Independence Party (Conservative) for the Reykjavík Constituency 2015 - 2021. She was Minister of Justice from January 11 2017 to March 14 2019, in two governments. She was the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commitee and Chairman of the Icelandic delegation to the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 2019 - 2021.

She was lawyer and an analyst at the Iceland Chamber of Commerce (1999-2005). After two years of maternity leave she started practicing law as an attorney at LEX law office in Reykjavík (2007-2015), up until she took permanent seat at the parliament. From 2008 to 2015 Sigríður was an alternate member of parliament, taking seat on several occasions. More on Sigríður‘s Parliamentary commitments here.

Education

Sigríður graduated Cand.jur. (MA equivalent) from the law faculty of University of Iceland in 1999. She was admitted to the Bar in 2001 and is licensed to practice before the district courts of Iceland.

Sigríður studied as exchange student at Complutense university in Madrid 1998-1999.

She studied Spanish and Business/Economics at the University of Iceland alongside other commitments.

Other Activities

She sat on the board of RSE - Centre for Social and Economic Research 2022 - 2023.

Sigríður has been a regular columnist at national newspapers in Iceland for decades. Most recent articles published also on this site. She regularly appears also upon request as commentator on current social and legal affairs on TV, radio and podcasts.

She was board member of Andriki (1997-2006), a free market think tank aiming at the introduction of libertarian views with daily on-line commentaries (www.andriki.is) for two decades (1997-2017).

Sigríður was chairman of the Spanish – Icelandic bilateral Chamber of Commerce (2007-2011). She sat on the Judiciary Board (2004-2009) and on a Board on Revision of Legislation on Real Estate Property Rights (2013-2014), both by appointments of Minister of Justice.

In 2013, when the Icelandic state faced unlawful claims by UK and Netherland authorities regarding debts of one of Iceland’s private banks (ICESAVE accounts) Sigríður was co-founder of Advice – the “NO to Icesave” campaign in a national referendum on a proposed deal the Icelandic government had planned to sign with the respective countries. In that referendum the deal was rejected by a good majority vote. Subsequently the dispute between the countries was concluded in EFTA court with total victory for Iceland. The UK and Netherland’s claims were deemed without any grounds.

Family

Sigríður was born in Reykjavík on 21 November 1971. Sigríður is married to Glúmur Björnsson, chemist, born 1969. They have two daughters, born 2005 and 2009. Hobbies include golf, heavy weight training and knitting.