The local office becomes Leroy şi Asociaţii.
Bruno Leroy and Andreea Toma lead together the newly created firm Leroy şi Asociaţii
Locally active since 1998, the French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel is the second international entity leaving the Romanian legal services market this year, following White&Case, in a climate in which the foreign law firms accuse the low rates accepted by several local players.
Leroy is the one who set up the local office of Gide 15 years ago, while Toma joined the team in 2000.
In the new firm, the two partners will coordinate a team of 15 lawyers. The address of the firm remains the same, the only difference being the new logo at the entrance. In the conference room of the firm, on the windowsill, there are several plaquettes pointing out the fact that in 2005, the firm assisted BRD bank in relation to a EUR 100 million financing operation for the French retailer Carrefour. The firm also provided legal assistance to Carrefour back in 1999 and then, in relation to the opening of its first 10 hypermarkets in Romania. Another notable moment was the assistance to the French insurer Groupama during the taking over of BT Asigurari in 2007 and of Asiban in 2008.
“This change will allow us to slightly lower our fees, to be a little more flexible and to go into line with the expectations of the market and of our clients”, Leroy said. “Moreover, we intend to be more involved in the activity of our clients, and not to intervene strictly on transactions, as before, which will allow us to diversify our rate policy and to have wider negotiation margins”, Andreea Toma added.
The firm currently assists the Vinci-Aktor-Strabag consortium that will build the Comarnic-Braşov highway, after assisting Strabag in the same project four years ago. Gide had also assisted the Spanish company Iberdrola in the tenders for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 in Cernavodă. ISDA, the organisation of brokers of derivatives transactions, is also among the firm’s clients.
At international level, Gide Loyrette Nouel, recently renamed Gide, dealt with falling revenues over the last period, its turnover amounting to approximately EUR 200 million. The decision to leave Romania was taken in the context in which Gide intends to centralise in Budapest its regional operations. Several years back, the firm closed its offices in the Czech Republic and Serbia. Whilst for Romania the decision has been to close the office, in Ukraine Gide Loyrette Nouel expanded by acquiring a competitor.
On the legal services market in Bucharest, the competition manifests lately by putting pressure on the fees, meaning that law firms are “forced”, in a vicious circle, to offer lower and lower rates. The local offices of international firms encounter even higher difficulties by having to observe the rate policy at group level and strict profitability criteria.
Gide has been one of the first international firms to open an office in Romania, in 1998, at the same time with Noerr. Before them, Schoenherr and Salans had already opened offices in Bucharest. Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, DLA Piper, Eversheds, CMS Cameron McKenna and Wolf Theiss are among the other international firms with offices or associations in Bucharest.
A special case is Linklaters, the London giant that left Romania in 2008, resulting in the creation of Kinstellar law firm and facilitating the setting up of other medium-sized firms. Another notable exit is the one of the Spanish firm Garrigues in 2010.
Source: Ziarul Financiar, Year XVI / No. 3.838, February 7th, 2014
