D&T Romania is looking for a law firm

The Romanian division of the international audit, management and fiscal consulting company Deloitte&Touche Tohmatsu is interested in taking over a local law firm, to consolidate its position on the legal consulting services market.

Deloitte&Touche (D&T) Romania is carefully probing the law firm market, as consultancy in this field is still one of its weak points.

“We want to find a good law firm,” Paul-Andre Michaud, D&T president and partner, told Ziarul Financiar. “We’re not strong enough on this market segment,” Michaud says.

Talking about the company development strategy for this year, Paul-Andre Michaud said D&T was also looking for a human resource services company.

After the preliminary search, the D&T Romania boss says it is quite hard to find a law firm interested in such a project, given the independent spirit of those working in the industry.

“We have not been approached yet, but I know they are not the only ones in the Big Five doing this,” Dan Sulica, partner in Babiuc, Tanasescu & Asociatii stated.

He says the firm would be willing to talk in terms of a co-operation but not an absorption. “Foreign law firms approached us directly about a take-over, but we felt it would be like “enslavement,” a false unprofessional subordination,” Dan Sulica said.

Neither Calin Andrei Zamfirescu & Partners seems to have caught the eye of Deloitte& Touche, as well. “We have not had any talks with them so far as neither did we hear about such an intention of those at Deloitte,” Calin Zamfirescu explained.

According to the group’s global strategy, D&T eyes one of the top ten Romanian companies in the industry.

Deloitte&Touche Romania targets expanding its client portfolio to 30% of the international companies in this market over the next three years, says Paul-Andre Michaud.

At the same time, it is planning to attract 8% of the consultancy market for Romanian companies.

In line with the world hierarchy of the professional service companies comprising the Big Five (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte&Touche, KPMG, Arthur Andersen and Ernst&Young), D&T ranks second on the Romanian market, after PwC, shoulder to shoulder with Arthur Andersen and KPMG.

Deloitte&Touche Romania’s strong points are the audit department, whose clients include Lafarge and Procter&Gamble, and the IT consultancy department, providing services to Mobilrom, Petrom and to some of the major Romanian banks.

D&T Romania has been very active in the privatisation in Romania, currently providing consultancy for 23 companies.