ZRVP Promotes Seven Highly Performing Lawyers to the Next Level of Seniority

Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners (ZRVP) announces new promotions in the Consultancy and Litigation practice groups starting April 2023. The decision came after the annual evaluation rounds, which took into account the professional contribution to the firm's success, the degree of involvement in projects and positive feedback from clients.

Of the seven promotions, two were to middle-management positions. Thus, George Avram and Dragoș Zamfir have been promoted to Managing Associates, which will bring them project leadership in their areas of expertise and extended administrative responsibilities. Five other lawyers - Marcela Antoniu, Alexandra Bulgacov, Laura Burtan, Celestino Dincă and Elena Iacuba - have taken a step forward in their careers and become Senior Associates.

“Most of ZRVP's seniors, associates and trainees have grown and are growing under our watch. The firm's partners have always been committed to mentoring the next generation of lawyers and we take pride every time a colleague of ours is ready to move on to the next step in their career. In this profession you thrive on hard work, passion, humanity, and a splash of talent. I congratulate all on this achievement and wish them every success in the future," said Cosmin Vasile, managing partner of ZRVP.

New colleagues  - Ada Grozea, Denisa Neamțiu, Adina Rotaru and Ioana Viorică - have recently joined as senior associates of consultancy and dispute resolution teams. They will use their experience and expertise to strengthen the constantly evolving corporate and litigation practices.

George Avram has over ten years of practice experience and joined the criminal law department of Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners in 2014.

He provides legal assistance and representation on criminal law issues to the most important banks in Romania, as well as to national and multinational companies operating in strategic areas of the economy (gas distribution, energy production and supply, railway transport, aluminium industry, wood industry). George has also assisted numerous individuals before criminal prosecution bodies and courts, including a former leader of a governing political party, a former Minister of Justice, three members of the Romanian Parliament, mayors of municipalities and businessmen.
His expertise in white collar crime covers economic-financial, banking, capital market, corruption and service offences, as well as construction and malpractice offences, successfully representing numerous medical professionals before prosecuting authorities and professional bodies.
He assists major companies and public figures both at the stage of criminal prosecution in front of prosecutors’ offices, especially PICCJ, DIICOT and DNA, as well as at the trial stage, including in cases in which prevention measures have been taken.
His expertise and professionalism are recognized nationally and internationally, George being selected, in 2018, by the Ministry of Justice and the World Bank, to participate as a specialist in criminal law in a unique European project, of unification of criminal legislation.

Dragoș Zamfir is a litigation lawyer with outstanding expertise in civil, commercial and administrative law. He is mainly involved in construction disputes, including disputes arising from the execution of FIDIC works contracts, recovery of amounts and/or additional costs owed by the Beneficiary as a result of contractual or additional works carried out by the Contractor or from the execution of infrastructure works. Dragoș assists both Contracting Authorities (Beneficiaries) and Contractors ( Executors) in national construction disputes and arbitrations.
Dragoș was recruited to ZRVP's litigation department immediately after graduating from university and passing the bar exam, his professional development being carried out in the spirit and based on the principles promoted in the firm's litigation school.
Dragoș's expertise also includes energy, environmental, insolvency and bankruptcy litigation, as well as projects related to debt recovery in enforcement proceedings (including matters related to enforcement proceedings).

Marcela Antoniu joined ZRVP's consultancy team in 2019. She specialises in employment law and is involved in a significant number of projects for companies doing business in the fields of construction and real estate development, IT, medical, oil, finance, computer-assisted training (e-learning), aeronautics.
Marcela advises clients in all aspects of individual and collective labour relations, having professional experience built up through involvement in various projects, namely: complex restructurings involving both individual and collective redundancies; negotiation and termination, by agreement of the parties, of individual employment contracts of key employees; disciplinary dismissals; dismissals for professional misconduct; transnational secondments; collective bargaining; legal assistance in matters relating to the election of employee representatives; implementation of measures to optimise employers' costs (reduction of working hours; suspending individual employment contracts); implementation of flexible working programmes, teleworking, home working; company transfers; due diligence analyses.
Marcela also assists clients in drafting internal regulations and policies, as well as specific clauses in individual employment contracts. Last but not least, Marcela provides legal assistance to clients on specific, ad hoc employment law issues.

Alexandra Bulgacov is part of the firm's litigation department with extensive experience in court proceedings. She has successfully represented clients from various industries in a wide range of civil and commercial litigation, her areas of expertise including real estate law, family law and litigation arising from family and inheritance relationships, insolvency and foreclosure proceedings.
In the field of real estate litigation she is mainly involved in projects concerning claims for recovery of property and restoration of property rights. At the same time, Alexandra has provided legal assistance and represented clients in numerous disputes deriving from this field, namely restitutions on special laws - Law 18/1991, Law 10/2001 and Law 1/2000, as well as in construction disputes.
Alexandra also has extensive experience in enforcement of contractual obligations, cancellation, termination and rescission of contracts, contractual and tort liability.

Laura Burtan joined Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners in 2019.
She focuses her practice in the area of civil and commercial law, being involved in particular in transnational negotiations for the conclusion of multi-party contracts, covering various aspects of law, including competition law issues, European provisions with an impact on the antitrust markets in which clients operate and personal data protection issues.
Another key area in which she excels is electricity markets, with Laura participating in a number of European projects on power exchanges and the European legislative process to amend regulations applicable to the field.
In terms of involvement in corporate law projects, her area of expertise includes complex issues relating to mergers and divisions of companies and corporate governance issues.
In addition, Laura has gained significant experience on Romanian public procurement procedures and the conditions for participation in procurement procedures.

Celestino Dincă has been part of the firm's litigation department since 2018. He specialises in civil and commercial litigation and arbitration arising from professional relationships and family law. Celestino is also one of the initiators of The Child Factor, a blog dedicated to family law, and has authored and co-authored numerous articles on child law, divorce, domestic violence, and adoption.
Celestino is passionate about blockchain technology and has experience advising clients on cryptocurrency transactions, smart contracts, and other decentralized applications.
In addition to his legal work, Celestino is also committed to growing new initiatives within the firm. Thus, he is currently involved in the establishment of a new department focused on blockchain technology. This department will provide clients with cutting-edge legal advice and services in this rapidly evolving field.
His commitment to staying at the forefront of this fascinating sector is confirmed by his involvement in various blockchain-related organisations, currently being a founding member of MetaverseLegal.

Elena Iacuba joined ZRVP in 2020 and specialises in tax, administrative, energy and real estate litigation.
In the area of fiscal litigation, she has successfully provided legal services to a wide portfolio of national and international clients, being directly involved in complex litigation cases and projects concerning tax law and the calculation, payment and enforcement of various forms of taxes and duties, such as corporate tax, withholding tax, local taxes, VAT, excise duties, social contributions.
In the real estate field, Elena's expertise focuses mainly on disputes concerning the issue, suspension or cancellation of building permits, but also on disputes of a dual legal nature, at the intersection of administrative and civil law, such as those concerning the cancellation and suspension of zoning plans or decisions of public authorities responsible for urban planning.
Her experience also includes litigation between professionals, civil cases of common law and family law, enforcement and land resources. Marcela was part of the team that managed our law firm's largest land resources project with a 99% success rate.

Ada Grozea provides legal assistance in the following main areas: corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions regulatory and authorization procedures. She has gained experience in assisting clients on all aspects of labor law, such as drafting of employment agreements, individual or collective dismissals, transfer of employees, disciplinary procedures and drafting of internal regulations.
She assists clients on corporate and commercial law issues, including day-to-day legal matters and corporate governance aspects.
She has also been involved in regulatory projects, which entailed, among other things, assisting clients in diversifying their operational portfolio by obtaining the necessary permits, authorisations and licenses.

Denisa Neamțiu specializes in public procurement. She advises contracting authorities on all aspects of public procurement matters and is involved in strategic tender planning, implementation, and management, including drafting of tender documents. She deals with reviewing the tender documentation and assists numerous economic operators during the entire tender process, often preventing incompliant bids.
Denisa was a member of the team of legal consultants that advised the European Investment Bank within the project regarding assistance to the National Agency for Public Procurement (ANAP) in the implementation of the ex-ante control system reform. During this program, Denisa provided valuable insight into key issues and challenges, industry trends and benchmarks, and guidelines for the public procurement legislation.
Denisa also routinely assists clients on a wide range of corporate and commercial law matters.

Adina Rotaru has developed extensive expertise in representing clients in corporate transactions (acquisition of shares, assignment of shares), real estate projects (sale purchase agreements for immovable assets, lease agreements for office premises), competition law issues (vertical agreements, drafting competition compliance policies and dawn raids guidelines, state aid cases before the European Comission, notifications to the Romanian Competition Council of economic concentration operations in connection with the acquisition of sole/joint control) and intellectual property in matters related to registration and protection of trademark rights, and trademark assignment.
Adina has been an active member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania Competition Committee. In this capacity, she contributed to AmCham’s Advocacy Activity, drafting proposals for the amendment of the Romanian competition legislation, in view of harmonizing such enactments with the EU applicable laws.

Ioana Viorică specialises in civil, administrative and tax litigation, with a focus on disputes arising from the annulment of administrative acts, public procurement, expropriation proceedings for public utility, enforcement or insolvency proceedings.
Her area of expertise includes legal assistance and representation in cases concerning the protection or reinstatement of property rights, company law and the drafting of legal opinions on real estate matters.