Salans forecasts opportunities on luxury goods market

Salans, one of the most important international law firms present in Romania, is set to become more involved in the capital market and luxury goods industry.
“It’s the right time for the consolidation of a strong team of lawyers with a good knowledge of the capital market, which will sooner or later rebound. On the other hand, we also want to gain a strong foothold on the luxury goods market, which we hope will register solid growth in Romania,” states Anda Todor, one of Salans’ two managing partners.
The firm currently has 35 lawyers and 30 additional personnel. The basic fields, such as the corporate, real estate and financing bring 70-80% of the firm’s revenues, while the firm also provides competition, litigation and media services.
“We target turnover growth of around 30% this year and to expand our team to 40-50 lawyers. Development will also depend on how we manage to find these people, but we are in a good recruitment position,” considers Christopher Berlew, in his turn a managing partner with Salans.
The firm’s Bucharest office generated 50% higher turnover last year, according to the firm’s representatives. The most important deals the firm’s lawyers were involved in include Lehman Brothers’ becoming a shareholder of developer Impact and the assistance provided to Rompetrol in the sale of the majority stake to KazMunaiGaz.
Todor says there is no competition between domestic and foreign firms, only between leading firms, with the difference that international firms have access to the global resources of the network. “The Bucharest office is becoming a strategic one, and of increasing importance in Salans’ network,” says Berlew.
“The specificity of the office is working with foreign customers, but also with domestic firms that require the services of an international firm, so that in terms of customer portfolio expansion we are following both directions,” adds Berlew.
Last year, which was a good year for the economy, was also a solid year for law firms, which posted significant turnover and staff expansion.
“We continue to be highly optimistic about Romania given the strong economic growth in recent years that followed a period of stagnation, for which reason there is still room for significant growth in some sectors and a solid return on investments,” says Todor.