REAL ESTATE
Real estate was our first area of expertise and it remains the one area in which we are most experienced.
We started off in 2006 (in the middle of Romania’s short-lived real-estate boom) and we worked on hundreds of transactions. Our clients invested hundreds of millions of Euro in Romanian farmland and properties within the city limits.
We are here to make sure that you are making a safe investment. We check the validity of the title deed and for any possible problems that might lead to the investor losing ownership in a future lawsuit. For each transaction, we provide due diligence on the title deed and we draw up the necessary documents for the actual transaction (preliminary/ sale agreement, escrow agreement, etc.). And should any obstacles appear, we will find the legal solutions to overcome them and close the deal.
We like the detective work that due diligence requires. We like to protect our clients’ investments and we always act as their partners.
CORPORATE
From the very beginning we focused on corporate legal assistance. We were drawn to this area because of its technical and abstract nature, nothing like the tumultuousness of family law cases.
We provide the whole range of corporate legal services: from (i) incorporation; (ii) assistance with obtaining various permits (e.g. the business license under O.G. no. 99/2000; sanitary and veterinary permits; fire safety permits, etc.); (iii) all kinds of changes (e.g. changing the name of your business, including obtaining the Government’s or local authorities’ approval of the name under Art. 39 of Law no. 26/1990); sale; change of registered offices or legal structure or business purpose; (iv) mergers; to (v) dissolution and liquidation.
Before signing any contract with another business entity we advise you to contact a specialized firm to check their solvability and even get payment protection insurance. We have used the services of COFACE and we can recommend them.
LABOR LAW
As lawyers, we have represented both employees and employers, but this can only work to the advantage of both sides. We uphold the respect of labor rights as much as we believe in labor efficiency.
“Employees” Side
We can help you with:
Checking your individual labor agreement (ILA). Do not underestimate the importance of the provisions in your ILA. The quality of your life might very well depend on them.
Getting a wrongful disciplinary sanction revoked. In the vast majority of cases, the compulsory disciplinary investigation procedure is never followed. It is important to know that a second disciplinary sanction, however minor the misconduct, can result in you being dismissed. Therefore, we advise you to make sure that any wrongful disciplinary sanction is revoked.
Getting a wrongful decision to dismiss revoked so that you can be reinstated to your job or, should you no longer want that, we can make sure that the employer pays all your salary rights for the time elapsed between the wrongful dismissal and the date of the court ruling in the matter. Generally, it takes between 9 and 18 months for the court to rule, enough to provide you with a nice budget for a well-deserved vacation.
More generally, we can help you to know your rights as an employee and actually make use of them
“Employers” Side
The assistance we provide to employers (generally seen as the more powerful side, with judges often practicing positive discrimination in favor of the employees) is as follows: (i) drafting individual labor agreements (ILA) and collective labor agreements (CLA) and addenda; (ii) preparing the job description; (iii) drafting the internal regulations; (iv) helping you structure the work schedule; (v) providing you with assistance and representation in the preliminary investigation procedure with a view to taking disciplinary action against employees (including termination of labor agreement); (vi) preparing documents for the disciplinary committee and the disciplinary decisions; (vii) providing consultancy as to the rights/ obligations of employers/ employees (including pensions and other social benefits) under the Labor Code, the CLA in force, and other applicable legislation.
CONTRACTS
You name it, we draft it. Whatever business line you are in, we can provide the custom-made contracts you need. We don’t advise you to use contract models (even if they are readily available online) because 80% of the provisions in them are superfluous, containing legal provisions that apply automatically, 10% of the provisions could be even harmful to your business but you wouldn’t know it (it takes four years at university to learn and understand legal language so you shouldn’t feel bad if you don’t master it), and 0% provisions that work in your favor. What’s the conclusion? Best case scenario: you get 10% useful provisions. Or it’s not really worth taking the risk for such a small benefit, is it?
Some of the contracts we can draft for you:
SALE – PURCHASE AGREEMENT
PRELIMINARY SALE – PURCHASE AGREEMENT
LEASE AGREEMENT
CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT
POWER OF ATTORNEY
SERVICE AGREEMENT
MORTGAGE AGREEMENT
CONTRACT OF GUARANTEE
(JOINT VENTURE AGREEMENT)
CONCESSION AGREEMENT
LOAN AGREEMENT
ESCROW AGREEMENT
NOVATION
CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT
MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT
We can, and we actually strongly recommend it, assist you during negotiations and the signing of contracts.
LITIGATION AND COURT ENFORCEMENT
Although not something to wish for, they are sometimes necessary. And we find necessity motivating.
For instance, we can start slowly and politely with assisting you in the conciliation procedure. Then, if the parties fail to reach amicable settlement, we can move on to providing you legal assistance and representation in court. To terminate/ to void contracts. To apply for court enforcement of a contract and/or recovery of debts. To contest Contravention Notices from the Romanian Financial Guard or any other public authority. To evict. To partition property.
And finally, should the person that lost in court still refuse to fulfill their obligation, we can call on the services of a court enforcement officer. Unfortunately, some people only respond to this kind of measure.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Yes, we’re good at this too. One of the members of our team has been providing all types of legal assistance, mainly international trade, to an international company of the Lukoil Group for eight years now.
Some of the things we can do: (i) draft or check international trade contracts (supply/sale, carriage, insurance, storage, affreightment, etc.); (ii) assist you in the execution of said contracts; and (iii) provide INCOTERMS-related consultancy.
ENVIRONMENT
Do you own a restaurant? Or a coffee shop? (The full list of activities with an impact on the environment is available in H. G. no. 573/2002)
If the answer is yes, then we can advise you on the environmental requirements of your business (e.g. waste management, payments to the government’s Environmental Fund, etc.); we can assist you and represent you with a view to obtaining the Environmental Permit and later the Environmental License; to contest the Contravention Notices of the Environmental Guard, etc.
NGOs
As mentioned on our Home Page, we look with admiration at the initiatives of the new, young and free generation (not that we are that old ourselves, but the 1989 anti-communist Revolution came when we were already 9-10 years old so we didn’t get to grow in a free society from the beginning) and we want to support their projects as much as possible.
We have already provided our support to “Salvați Bucureștiul”, Funky Citizens and other smaller specific causes.
If you are looking to set up an NGO, we can assist you throughout the procedure. We have plenty of experience in this area. One of the NGOs we have helped set up more recently is “Scita Civita” (an URBASOFIA initiative) whose mission is to integrate people with the environment in big cities like Bucharest.
We can also help you amend your Memorandum of Association and have the amendments registered.
But what we’d like the most is to actually work on your projects. We can do it either pro bono or for modest fees.