Kinstellar significantly expands its dynamic employment and labour law team in Bucharest

Kinstellar is pleased to announce new joiners to its employment and labour law team in Bucharest over the past month. The Firm welcomes senior lawyers Lidia Zărnescu and Cătălin Roman, who each boast more than 10 years of employment and labour law experience. Their addition to the firm significantly strengthens our employment and labour law expertise and grows our team in Bucharest to 6 dedicated lawyers, making it one of the largest and most experienced teams in Romania. This enables us to respond to the ever-increasing need for labour-related law advice in Romania.

Lidia Zărnescu has significant expertise and an established track record handling a wide spectrum of employment and labour law issues including TUPE, disciplinary procedures, termination of employment agreements, mobbing, data protection, and immigration issues. She has also drafted and reviewed a variety of employment-related documents including policies and internal regulations.

She earned a Ph.D. in Labour and Social Security law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest and holds seminars for students on social security law. She also regularly publishes articles and speaks at conferences.

Lidia is also specialised in dispute resolution, having successfully assisted and represented employers before national courts of law in complex matters, including wrongful termination, patrimonial liability, strikes and work-related accidents.

Lidia Zărnescu: “Kinstellar is known for its organizational culture and first-class services. I am very happy to embark on this new chapter of my career and be part of Kinstellar’s extraordinary team of professionals. I trust that, together, we will leverage our combined expertise and offer more comprehensive, complex and high-value-added legal services to our clients.”

Cătălin Roman is a veteran in providing employment support to multinationals in Romania: advising on all aspects of labour-related matters including hiring, dismissals, internal policies and compliance, as well as disputes. He is a regular contributor to various international and local publications and often serves as speaker in specialised conferences.

His practice likewise covers dispute resolution matters, having assisted and represented clients in front of Romanian courts of law in a wide range of employment matters (as well as civil and administrative). He is recognized as a “Rising Star” by the reputable legal directory Legal 500 Europe, 2022 Edition.
Prior to joining Kinstellar, Cătălin was the coordinator of the employment practice at the local office of a leading German law firm.

Cătălin Roman: “Working at Kinstellar was an old dream of mine and I take this opportunity to thank all the local partners for their trust and for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful team. I am really excited and looking forward to provide the best advice and support for our clients and achieve the highest professional standards, as Kinstellar is well known to be offering such level of professionalism and advice.”  

Claudiu Ciubotaru also joined Kinstellar as an associate. He has already 3 years of practice specializing in employment and labour law matters where he has assisted on various aspects concerning internal rules and regulations, individual and collective bargaining agreements, or drafting specific documentation. He has also advised on commercial disputes and international arbitration cases.

Lidia, Cătălin and Claudiu join the local employment and labour law team comprising senior lawyers Mădălina Anghenie, Gabriela Ion, and Rena Saftencu. The 6-lawyer team is headed by Partner Remus Codreanu who has over 18 years of broad and in-depth experience in advising and representing Romanian and international companies (acting in various industries like construction, energy, IT, retail, media etc.) on a broad range of employment and labour law matters involving both consultancy (e.g. out-of-court settlement of employment cases, implementation of TUPE in outsourcing contracts, implementing individual or collective dismissal procedures, providing regular employment advice in the day-to-day related activity of the clients, etc.) and contentious matters (e.g. representing employers in court cases having as object the challenging of the dismissal decisions, damages for alleged harassment, discrimination etc.).

Kinstellar thus becomes one of the largest employment and labour law practices in Romania.

Victor Constantinescu, Kinstellar Bucharest’s Managing Partner, comments: “In years past, employment and labour law matters always seemed to take a back-seat to larger practice areas such as M&A or dispute resolution. This is no longer the case. ESG and labour market dynamics are profoundly changing the way we work, requiring companies to adopt best practices and pay special attention to labour matters. I am really excited by our new hires and our team, which I firmly believe is the best employment practice in Romania.”

Remus Codreanu, Partner and Head of the local practice, adds: “The new hires reflect the constant organic growth of our employment practice over the years, a growth that comes as a natural result of the high quality of our advice. We assist an increasing number of companies (both local and multinational) on a daily basis, and together with our three new highly experienced colleagues, our team will be able to meet the demand.”