Reff & Associates strengthens its practice by promoting nine lawyers

Reff & Associates, the law firm representing Deloitte Legal in Romania, strengthens its practice by promoting nine lawyers to new career stages, in addition to the appointment of Cristi Secrieru as a new Partner, in July. Thus, the newly promoted lawyers within the firm are Luiza Ionescu-Donoiu, Andreea Șerban and Ovidiu Bălăceanu as Senior Managing Associates, Adelina Șomoiag as Managing Associate, Roxana Bratosin, Călin Georgescu-Mureșanu, Cristiana Baltag, Lorena Slevoacă and Matei Stefănescu, as Senior Associates.

“I welcome the achievements of nine of our lawyers, which is not only their success but the success of the firm since Reff & Associates grows in terms of expertise and seniority. We are one of the largest law firms in Romania, with a large spectrum of expertise that helps provide premium quality services to our clients, in addition to being part of Deloitte Legal global practice having access to 2,500 lawyers in more than 80 countries. These promotions show the high degree of skills and expertise of our team, and, at the same time, they are the vivid reflection of our lawyers’ talent, strong dedication and their eager determination for success. We find within our team an excellent mix of youth and maturity, contributing to additional level of energy, focus and commitment to respond to our client’s needs. It is with great satisfaction that we announce today nine newly promoted lawyers within our firm, dedicated to our common philosophy of putting the clients first and our landmark Attorneys at heart”, stated Andrei Burz-Pînzaru, Managing Partner with Reff & Associates, the law firm representing Deloitte Legal in Romania.

Luiza Ionescu-Donoiu has been appointed Senior Managing Associate in the litigation department within Reff & Associates. With more than 11 years of experience in administrative, tax and commercial practice, she coordinates a large number of commercial and administrative litigations against national authorities and particularly tax litigations against the tax authorities. In addition, Luiza is representing leading companies from a broad spectrum of industries in arbitration and competition cases and employment litigations. Luiza has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Bucharest (2008) and a master’s degree in tax and banking Law (LLM) from Nicolae Titulescu University (2009). She is a member of Bucharest Bar since 2009.
Andreea Șerban has been appointed Senior Managing Associate in the Banking & Finance department.
With an experience of eight years in various business law matters gained with the firm, she specializes primarily in the banking and finance sector. Andreea acted as legal counsel in over 15 loan portfolio deals with a face value aggregating over EUR 7 billion. Additionally, she has valuable experience in complex M&A deals in the financial sector, in the design and carve-out of independent servicing platforms from the banks working units and in structuring sub-participation arrangements. Her clients praise Andreea for being an “enthusiastic young lawyer with an excellent knowledge of the Romanian NPL market”, who is “balanced and able to propose solutions acceptable to both parties, avoiding deadlocks and moving forward the deals to close” and “understands not only the legal implications, but also the commercial side of the deal” (IFLR1000 legal guide).

With 12 years of experience in environmental and food law, Ovidiu Bălăceanu has been named as Senior Managing Associate within Reff & Associates. Ovidiu assists clients in ensuring compliance with environmental regulations (e.g., waste management/producer’s extended responsibility, pollution prevention and control, permitting and contamination) and with food law requirements. He also assists in the preparation of and during controls by environmental and food safety authorities and collaborates with the litigation team in preparing the merits of the court cases having an environmental and food law component. Ovidiu has a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Bucharest (2007), a masters’ degree in environmental law from the Ecological University of Bucharest (2011) and is a member of the Bucharest Bar since 2008.

Adelina Șomoiag has been appointed Managing Associate in the litigation department within Reff & Associates. With almost nine years of professional experience in litigation and arbitration, Adelina represents clients in front of the Romanian authorities and courts of justice in various litigation proceedings, such as commercial litigations, administrative, public procurement and tax litigations. She also assisted major clients in the preparation of and during controls performed by antifraud tax authorities. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in law (2009) and a master’s degree in legal careers (2011) from the University of Bucharest. Adelina is a member of the Bucharest Bar since 2010.

Named Senior Associate within Reff & Associates in the department dedicated to the financial services industry, Roxana Bratosin has four years of professional experience and has gained valuable knowledge in Capital Markets, Banking – Regulatory and Insurance, being very focused on the national and EU legal framework’s evolution in these areas (CRD/CRR, MiFID II, AIFMD, MAD/MAR, Solvency II, IDD, EU Securitization Regulation). She assisted various professional clients from the financial services sector in very sophisticated projects (credit institutions, private banks, non-banking financial institutions, investment firms, investment funds, public companies, insurance companies). In 2015, she has graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law, and became a member of the Bucharest Bar.

Newly appointed Senior Associate within Reff & Associates, Călin Georgescu-Mureșanu assists clients primarily in the real estate and construction practice. With four years of experience, Calin is specialized in property acquisitions projects (share or asset deals), including drafting, preparation of the contractual documentation, due diligence activities and title check procedures, both sell-side and buy-side. Additionally, Calin has been involved in multiple regulatory compliance projects, as well as assistance in the development phase of real estate projects. He has a bachelor’s degree in law from Babeș-Bolyai University (2015) and in the same year, he became a member of the Bucharest Bar. 

Promoted Senior Associate within Reff & Associates, Cristiana Baltag has a proven record of four years of experience in corporate and M&A legal matters such as drafting legal opinions and memoranda on aspects related to corporate law, legal advices and legal review of documents and contracts. Additionally, Cristiana assisted clients in M&A projects during the transaction and acquisition process and in reviewing, amending and drafting commercial agreements. In 2015, she has graduated from Babeș Bolyai University, Faculty of Law, and she is currently enrolled in a Master’s program at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law. She is a member of the Bucharest Bar since 2015.

Lorena Slevoacă has been promoted Senior Associate within Reff & Associates in the litigation department. During her five years of career, Lorena acquired valuable expertise in business law and dispute resolution. She has been involved in complex projects ranging from administrative, public procurement and fiscal litigation to civil, commercial, consumer protection and corporate cases, including arbitration proceedings. She has advised clients in corporate, mergers & acquisitions and competition matters, covering assistance in front of tax authorities and the Competition Council. Member of the Bucharest Bar, Lorena has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law, and a master’s degree in International Arbitration, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Bucharest.

Matei Ștefănescu had been named Senior Associate within Reff & Associates in the litigation department. During his four years of experience, Matei gained significant expertise in dispute resolution and regulatory matters. He has been involved in complex litigation proceedings, ranging from commercial, administrative and fiscal litigation to public procurement and consumer protection cases, at both national and EU level. Matei acquired a relevant background in assisting clients on matters involving constant interaction with public authorities (e.g. in cases related to African Swine Fever outbreak). In 2015, Matei graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law and he became a member of the Bucharest Bar. Moreover, he has a master’s degree in Business Law from the University of Bucharest (2016).