Romanian and foreign lawyers wage backstage war

It has been six years already since exerting the lawyer profession in Romania was regulated by law, but differences between the Romanian and foreign law firms operating in Bucharest are far from reaching the end.

On the contrary, the modification of Law 51/1995 by Law 231/2000 aggravated the conflict, which is still a backstage one.

None of the two sides has unified views yet. The opinions of the Romanian lawyers go from the strict enforcement of the law to the need to amend it, so that it would be more “liberal.”

At the same time, representatives of the foreign law firms go from concrete proposals to amend the law and lobby to the Romanian authorities in this regard to complete silence, both towards the authorities and the press.

Eight of the leading foreign law firms in Bucharest were sent e-mails by Ziarul Financiar and asked to comment upon the situation. None of them answered.

“They’re afraid,” Mark Meyer from Herzfeld&Rubin feels. “They’re welcome to me (i.e. foreign lawyers). We only ask them to become legal,” says Gheorghe Musat, managing partner with the Musat&Asociatii Romanian law firm.

“We’re afraid of the Anglo-Saxon spirit. We should be more open,” Dan Sulica, with the Romanian firm Babiuc, Tanasescu, Sulica si Asociatii thinks.

This week could witness a first time in six years: sources within the Union of Lawyers in Romania say the first meeting between the representatives of this professional body and the representatives of foreign law firms has allegedly been scheduled for tomorrow. Also this week, foreign lawyers will convene to set their position straight.

What is this all about, anyway? In brief, Law 231/2000 stipulates that six months after coming into effect, that is June 1, 2001, foreign lawyers will have to give up membership in the bar associations in their countries of origin if they want to build a practice in Romania; foreign law firms may provide legal services in Romania only if they register as civil professional firms, that is one of the organisation forms of the Romanians; the name of such a firm will be derived from the name of the foreign lawyer operating legally in Romania (i.e. Smith, Popescu & Asociatii).

The law does not permit these firms to register unless the number of Romanian associates is equal to the foreign associates at least. Non-compliance with the legal provisions by June this year qualifies as infringement, and those not observing the law are liable to imprisonment.

So far, the international law firms in Romania have been operating either as limited liability companies or as branch offices. Romanian lawyers say that neither one of these organisation is operating under the law.

True, say foreign lawyers, but what can we do if neither Law 51/1995, nor Law 231/2000 regulates the presence of international law firms in Romania, considering they are already here?