The biggest business law firm in Romania, Musat & Asociatii, has suffered a heavy blow in recent days in the form of the departure of Florentin Tuca, the number two in the company, together with a group of lawyers made up of both partners and associates.
Tuca was the oldest partner of Gheorghe Musat, who founded Musat & Asociatii in 1993. At that time, Musat recruited a mass of young lawyers, together with whom he successfully built one of the best-known brands on Romania's business consulting services market.
Musat & Asociatii is ranked among the top three players on the market, estimated at 25-30 million euros a year, alongside Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen and the Bucharest office of London-based giant Linklaters.
Prior to the split, Musat & Asociatii had 13 partners, 62 associates and 35 assistants, according to the latest available data Both Musat and Tuca declined to comment on the reasons leading to the split.
Musat said the departure of the lawyers would not weaken his law firm.
"I have faith in the strength, professionalism and industriousness of the people who now stand by my side and with whom we make a powerful team. The fact that a group of lawyers want to start their own business is a personal option that will not affect the strength of Musat & Asociatii. I recently said the law market in Romania would go through some mutations in the near future. Both domestically and internationally, regrouping among law firms is a normal phenomenon. We will stay true to the general policy of the firm, promoting new partners from the ranks of young lawyers being trained at the Musat & Asociatii School for Lawyers, thus offering them excellent opportunities for professional improvement through involvement in highly complex cases and projects," Gheorghe Musat, the Senior Partner and founder of the firm, told Ziarul Financiar.
For his part, Tuca says the time has come for him to test his strengths on his own.
"There is a time in everybody's professional life when change becomes inevitable. New opportunities arise, new challenges appear, and your decision to go for them shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Personally, I feel I am now truly ready, together with other partners, to lay the foundations of a new business that we intend to build and develop according to our own vision. We are a young team, of confident people, willing to test our strengths in competition with the other law firms on the market," Tuca said.
He said he would set up a new law firm, Tuca & Asociatii, in which he will be supported by around 28 other lawyers from his former firm, eight of whom partners.
Musat & Asociatii took another hit some two years back when another group of lawyers lead by Ernest Popovici broke to form Popovici & Asociatii. Other partners left at the time as well.
Another big loss was incurred at the end of last year when Gabriel Zbarcea, the third highest ranking in Musat & Asociatii, chose to become advisor to Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the Prime Minister, and was then appointed head of the State Asset Resolution Authority (AVAS). adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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