Solid Knowledge, Ethics and Dedication Are Gender-Neutral
Published in “Euromoney’s Women in Business Law” – 5th edition, in August 2015
Year 1990 marked Romania’s onset on transition towards market economy and it was then that “business” and “profit” ceased to be associated with a fraudulent activity. The country embarked on a difficult road to eliminate trade barriers, facilitate free capital movements and support the dynamics of target domains such as energy, financial services, IT and electronics, automotive and telecommunications and to strengthen the private sector, while simultaneously reducing the direct implication of the state in economy.
Romania of today is capable to nurture a solid and appealing business environment. The country has been identified for many years as the next go-to investment arena, combining a frontier market’s prospects with the comfort of EU membership. Romania is a strategic growth area both geographically and in terms of its wealth of human and natural resources. It is a significant European consumer market and a uniquely placed hub for trade with the majority of BRIC countries and emerging economies. Long-term commitments to the European Union and the undertakings of Romania toward international creditors have opened new investment opportunities in a wide range of industries. The country suffers though from an endemic fragility of the institutional capacity and the absence of growth-fostering actions which would prove immune to political changes, the central and local administration commitment to enhancing the business environment is still weak, whereas non-uniform implementation of the legal and regulatory framework raises investment challenges.
In such extremely mobile and, at times, volatile environment, deep and undistorted local knowledge and capability to advise on legal, fiscal, social and political factors affecting investment decisions were (and still are) invaluable allies to foreign companies or entrepreneurs expanding their operations in Romania and, thus, a truly elite legal advisory force has grown and matured to hands-on assist with the tailoring and implementation of transactions, investment programmes and business models.
The resources that Romania’s legal market has been offering to businesses debunk the myth that professional authority, business sense, creativity, dedication, negotiation abilities and hard work are in any way male-gender-related. Some figures:
a Romanian was the first woman in Europe to be admitted in a bar association and the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in law
in 1990, 95% of the law school graduates were women
in 2014, 62% of the number of candidates admitted to practice law were women
most business law firms in Romania have at least one woman as name partner
a significant number of Romanian business law firms have a woman as managing or co-managing partner.
Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen – a gender snapshot:
three out of five name partners are women
one woman is co-managing partner
equity partners – 82% are women
partners – 79% are women
practice coordinators (other than partners) – 1 male lawyer
regional offices coordinators – 100% women
total fee earners – 66% are women.
Some would jokingly comment that we discriminate against men. But we continue to believe that gender-based recruitment is an error. We retain talent using knowledge, commercial focus ability and ethics as sole criteria and clients reward us with their trust assigning to us their most intricate legal and tax matters.
