International Bar Association (IBA) organized on March 19 a new European Regional Forum in Bucharest, this time focusing on law firm management.

Leaders of both local and international law firms such as Claudiu Munteanu-Jipescu, Partner with Dentons, Claudio Doria Tolle, Partner with Garrigues, Patricia Gannon, Partner with Karanovici & Nikolici, David O’Donnell, Partner with Mason Hayes & Curran, Katia Guzes, Partner with Arendt & Medernach, Catalin Baiculescu, Partner with Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii, Bryan W. Jardine, Partner with Wolf Theiss Rechtsanwalte, Cosmin Vasile, Partner Zamfirescu Racoti & Partners, and Prof. Dr. Jörg K. Menzer, Partner with Noerr and moderator of the conference discussed about various aspects regarding law firm management.

The event was also attended by Calin-Andrei Zamfirescu, Honorary President of the National Union of Romanian Bars & Head of the Romanian Delegation before CCBE, who opened the talks with a review of the domestic legal market which according to him is balanced, the law firms-to-people ratio in Romania lies in the European average.

Zamfirescu also emphasized that the Romanian market is rather fragmented, as only about 50 law firms comprise more than 20 lawyers, while the majority consists of single-attorney firms, or entities of very small teams.

The debates held during the forum addressed matters like law firm governance, positioning in international markets, expanding the business into new jurisdictions, effective client management, project and financial management, business planning, or leadership, the representatives of the law firms enumerated above offering advices in relation to these aspects to the participants, sharing their own experience in this regard.

The European Regional Forum was established in 1989 to provide a focus originally on the work undertaken by the IBA in developing the practice under changing legal systems of lawyers in Eastern and Central Europe. The forum was also intended to act as a channel for IBA communication with the bar associations of these local lawyers.