Doru Bostina, the managing partner of Bostina and Asociatii is one of the few lawyers that have bet on the potential of the markets outside Bucharest. For most law firms, smaller cities did not seem attractive, either because the services needed there were too simple to be of any interest to them or because the financial effort territorial expansion would have entailed was too great. ”Those that stuck in the cliché that big deals are only closed in Bucharest were not paying enough attention,” Bostina said during a conversation with BUSINESS Magazin.
Of the ten biggest Romanian law firms, only three – Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii (TZA), Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (NNDKP) and Bostina si Asociatii operate offices outside Bucharest, too. With 15 local offices that cover all the important regions, Bostina si Asociatii is the leader in terms of territorial expansion that started a few years ago, when few lawyers would look beyond the Capital. ”They should have opened their eyes and seen how many big and mediumsized companies had been reborn after privatisation or after the recession between 1997-2002,” Bostina says. In his case, 10% of the turnover of the last two years was generated by the territorial offices; though it may seem a little at first glance, ”the current crisis may very well diversify and boost demand for business law advice in the rest of the country”.
The reasons why going beyond the borders of the Capital may turn out to be a winning bet for lawyers, even though it is not profitable on short term, start with the fact that in Bucharest, the centre of many businesses, the most profitable industries as far as lawyers are concerned are frozen for the time being. Law in the big cities, on the other hand, is mostly a ”courtroom” business, and very little of it is done in form of consultancy. ”Naturally, the absence of demand has created a gap in terms of development of consultancy skills and its specific techniques compared with Bucharest,” says Adriana Gaspar, senior partner of NNDKP and managing partner of the Timisoara office. That is why she believes that some clients prefer to receive advice in Bucharest about their businesses in the country.
Traducere de Loredana Fratila-Cristescu si Daniela Stoican
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