News

2023 – A year with new opportunities and growth! 2024 – We are looking at what lies ahead with confidence!

As 2023 draws to a close, we reflect on a year filled with opportunities, successfully closed projects and great teamwork. We are extremely proud of all our team members, who demonstrated remarkable dedication and passion, consistently delivering exceptional results for our clients. We are also incredibly grateful for our clients’ trust and the strong partnerships we have established, enabling us to bring ambitious projects to life.

As we approach 2024, we look with confidence towards what lies ahead and remain steadfast in our commitment to providing value-added solutions that empower our clients to achieve their goals.

In 2023:

We became a founding member of the Three Seas Legal Alliance (TSLA)

NNDKP became one of the founding members of the Three Seas Legal Alliance (TSLA), a group of leading law firms from each country of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) which have come together to provide legal support to the Initiative and the needs of clients with regard to it.

The law firms that have formed the Three Seas Legal Alliance (TSLA) are: DORDA (Austria), Boyanov & Co. (Bulgaria), Divjak Topić Bahtijarevic & Krka (Croatia), Kocián Šolc Balaštík (Czech Republic), Ellex Raidla (Estonia), Lakatos, Köves and Partners (Hungary), Ellex Klavins (Latvia), Ellex Valiunas (Lithuania), Wardyński and Partners (Poland), Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (Romania), Barger Prekop (Slovakia) and Šelih & Partnerji (Slovenia).

More details about The Three Seas Legal Alliance (TSLA) are available here.

We celebrated 20 years of SEE Legal

This year we celebrated a remarkable milestone – two decades of SEE Legal. Together with our SEE Legal fellow members and distinguished guests, we celebrated 20 years of professionalism, innovation and cross-border collaboration at the iconic Hôtel d’Évreux in Paris.

Founded in 2003, SEE Legal is a highly-integrated group of 10 law firms advising in 12 jurisdictions in South East Europe, offering integrated cross-border and regional legal services. Each member is an independent law firm, ranked as one of the leading law firms in its jurisdiction.

More about SEE Legal here.

We received new accolades and distinctions at both international and national level

NNDKP:

• was once again shortlisted for the “Romania Law Firm of the Year” award by Chambers Europe in March 2023.
• won two “Deal of the Year” awards for the year 2022 at the CEE Deals of the Year Awards gala organized by CEE Legal Matters in April 2023 in Istanbul. The firm won The Deal of the Year award for the Romanian jurisdiction for advising on the transaction in which ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies, sold to Romgaz its 50% participation in the Neptun Deep offshore block in the Black Sea for over $1 billion. NNDKP also won the Deal of the Year award for the Bulgarian jurisdiction for the advisory work carried out in the transaction in which BioIVT, a leading global provider of research models and value-added research services for drug discovery and development, acquired Fidelis Research, active in the Romanian market as well.
• was named “Tax Disputes Firm of the Year’ at the 2023 edition of ITR EMEA Tax Awards organized by International Tax Review on September 27^th in London. The award received by NNDKP is an international recognition of the performance, professionalism, and achievements of NNDKP’s Center of Excellence in Fiscal Disputes.
• received 3 trophies at the Romanian Legal Awards 2023 Gala organized by Legal Marketing in July 2023, in recognition of the outstanding performance and exceptional work carried out in 2022 by our teams in the Competition, State Aid and EU Law, Energy and Natural Resources and Environment practices.
• won the Competition Team of the Year for the Energy Industry award, at the PRIA Competition Gala 2023 organized by PRIA in December 2023.

We launched new initiatives

The NNDKP Center of Excellence in Fiscal Disputes (NNDKP CELF) launched together with Oameni si Companii (OSC) the CELF community, designed to provide a forum for debate and knowledge sharing for specialists in the legal and finance departments of companies, top executives and entrepreneurs.

As part of this initiative NNDKP organized throughout 2023 a series of events during which NNDKP specialists and their guests explored theoretical and practical aspects of topical issues in the tax field. In total, the CELF community hosted 8 events, including 6 online sessions and 2 in-person gatherings in Cluj Napoca and Timisoara. These events delved into a wide range of tax matters that directly impact the daily operations of businesses and the latest legislative changes. More about this initiative here.

We were recognized once again in prominent international rankings

NNDKP has once again earned recognition in prestigious international legal rankings, solidifying its reputation as a top-tier law firm in Romania. As evidenced by the firm’s remarkable rankings in the Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500 or IFLR1000 2023 editions, NNDKP stands as a premier legal destination for clients across a vast spectrum of industries.

• 19 Band 1/Tier 1 positions for our practices
  • Ranked first (Band 1) in 6 practice areas researched in Romania by Chambers Europe
  • Ranked first (Tier 1) in 11 practice areas researched in Romania by The Legal 500
  • Ranked first (Tier 1) in 2 practice areas researched in Romania by IFLR1000
• Further recognition in various legal areas
  • included in the GCR 100 2024, the annual listing of the world`s best competition practices and consultancies
  • Recommended firm for litigation and transactions, as well as prosecution in the IAM Patent 1000
  • Ranked firm in Romania for Patent, Trademark disputes and Trademark prosecution, by Managing Intellectual Property – IP Stars
  • Ranked firm in Romania for General Corporate Tax, Tax Controversy and Transfer Pricing by ITR World Tax
• 83 appearances of our lawyers and counsellors in individual rankings
  • 17 professionals listed by Chambers Europe
  • 37 professionals included in The Legal 500
  • 13 professionals recognized by IFLR 1000
  • 6 professionals ranked by Who’s Who Legal
  • 3 professionals recommended by IAM Patent 1000
  • 2 professionals listed by IP Stars
  • 5 professionals ranked by ITR World Tax

We received outstanding individual recognition

In 2023, members of our team were honored with prestigious accolades and recognition for their exceptional work and achievements.

• Ion Nestor, Co-Managing Partner, received the „Constantin Cunescu” award for supporting the Court of International Commercial Arbitration, at the Romanian Arbitration Gala hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania in October 2023.
• Sorina Olaru was recognized as a global leader in the IAM Global Leaders list for 2024, alongside world`s top private practice experts in the patent field.
• Manuela Nestor, Adriana I. Gaspar, Adina Chilim-Dumitriu, Alina Radu, Gabriela Cacerea and Ruxandra Bologa were recognized as Women Leaders in the 2023 edition of the IFLR guide, among the most prominent women lawyers across the world, with outstanding reputations within their markets.
• Lavinia Ionita-Rasmussen was included for a third time among “The 50 Most Influential People in Romania’s Real Estate Market”, an annual publication put together by Property Forum.
• Ana Diculescu-Sova, Adriana I. Gaspar and Alina Radu were included once again in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame.

We added a collection of new deals to our track record

In 2023, we contributed to major transactions in Romania, providing tailored legal advice and guidance to our clients to help them ensure their successful completion.

Among others, NNDKP:

• advised Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican multinational food company present in over 33 countries, in a multimillion-dollar transaction consisting in the acquisition of the Romanian bakery company Vel Pitar.
• assisted Safety Broker, currently part of Acrisure Group, in the consolidation of its position on the Romanian insurance mediation market, materialized through the acquisition of the insurance mediation businesses of 2 medium sized local insurance brokers.
• was part of the international team of advisors that assisted CANCOM SE in the acquisition of K-Businesscom-Group and all its subsidiaries, Austria’s leading provider of IT&C solutions and services. NNDKP was part of the group of law firms that advised the buyer in the transaction, together with Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek (Germany) and DORDA (Austria), members of World Services Group (WSG), one of the most prestigious networks of law firms in the world.
• was part of the international team of advisors that assisted NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS, Inc., one of the world’s leading logistics companies, in acquiring the shares of the multiple subsidiaries of Cargo-Partner Group Holding AG (Cargo-Partner), which provides global logistics services through its main business sites in Central and Eastern Europe. NNDKP was part of an international team of lawyers assisting the buyer in the transaction, led by Freshfields, one of the world’s leading law firms.
• was part of the international team of advisors that assisted Insight Enterprises, a Fortune 500 Solutions Integrator focused on driving client success through digital transformation, in acquiring Amdaris, a software development and digital services company based in the UK, with service delivery centres located in several Eastern European countries.
• assisted Impact Developer & Contractor SA in connection with a EUR 8 million corporate bond issue.
• assisted Holcim Romania, one of the leaders in the construction materials industry in Romania, with the expansion of its aggregates division through the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Stones Business Development SRL, which operates an aggregate station and a sand and gravel mining exploitation.
• assisted a syndicate of banks with the amendment and extension until 2026 of USD 150 million working capital credit facilities for ALRO S.A., one of the largest vertically integrated aluminium producers in Europe, by production capacity. The syndicate of banks was coordinated by Exim Banca Românească and included Banca Comercială Română SA (BCR), OTP Bank Romania, CEC Bank, UniCredit Bank, Alpha Bank Romania and Banca Transilvania.
• assisted a syndicate of banks in providing EUR 550 million in financing to the Swiss group Ameropa, which owns some of the largest local agribusiness companies – Azomures, Romania’s largest fertilizer producer, Ameropa Grains SA, a major grain trader, and Chimpex, a leader in port operations. The syndicate of banks consisted of Banca Comercială Română SA, Raiffeisen Bank SA, ING Bank Romania, Unicredit Bank SA, Alpha Bank Romania SA, Banca Transilvania SA, BRD Groupe Societe Generale SA, Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo Romania SA and GarantiBank International N.V.
• assisted OTP Bank Romania and OTP Group in a EUR 57.80 million financing for Exigent Property Investment SRL to fund the development of phase 5 of Exigent Plaza Residence, the largest residential project in Bucharest, located in Militari area.

More details on our work can be found here.

We continued to support the next generation of lawyers

We launched the NNDKP Academic program dedicated to second-year law students and continued our long-standing NNDKP Summer School program, which reached the 17th edition in 2023.

In total, over 40 law students joined our programs in 2023, and got a chance to catch a glimpse into the day-to-day activity of our teams in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara offices.

Also, together with Asociatia Studentilor in Drept (Law Students’ Association) we organized the 2023 edition of the:

• Mock Trials in Competition Law (May 2023), and
• Mock Trials in Administrative Law (December 2023).

where the jurors were colleagues from our Competition and Dispute Resolution practices.

We also launched a Careers Facebook page as a channel where we can connect with students, aspiring and also seasoned lawyers, share valuable career insights and information, and foster meaningful conversations. We invite you to join our community here.

We shared our knowledge and expertise

• over 50 events in which our experts participated as speakers
• More than 80 data protection updates prepared by our Data Protection specialists on Privacy out Loud, NNDKP’s blog dedicated to data protection and privacy
• Our LinkedIn community flourished, reaching nearly 7,000 followers, fueled by our commitment to keeping you informed of our latest projects and initiatives. In 2023, we shared 200 posts, ensuring that you were always informed and engaged with our expanding network. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support and presence in our community.

We contributed to making a positive impact on our community

In 2023 we joined forces with Ius Laboris to make a meaningful impact beyond geographical borders during the first Ius Laboris Impact Week. We successfully organized, together with our partner Let`s Do It Romania!, a green initiative at the Straulești Forest, aiming to contribute to a cleaner and safer environment for the local community. Together with our colleagues, we embarked on a collective mission to cleanse the forest, meticulously collecting and discarding waste, leaving behind a revitalized and safer green space for all to enjoy.

See you all in 2024!