Sebastian Gutiu is the office managing partner of Schoenherr Romania. He runs the firm's group-wide real estate practice in all its jurisdictions and is the head of the Romanian dispute resolution practice, including litigation & arbitration, insolvency & restructuring, WCC & criminal defence. Sebastian has advised on major real estate transactions in Romania, supporting developers and investors in commercial, office, industrial and logistics projects. He has coordinated the legal teams involved in a series of high-profile litigation cases and is a respected arbitration lawyer, working on international investment arbitration, ICC arbitration, and domestic arbitration. His client portfolio includes major companies active in the Romanian economy, covering industries such as energy (oil & gas, electricity, renewables), consumer goods, financial services, manufacturing, real estate and constructions, and IT&C. Chambers Europe ranks him as an eminent practitioner in the Romanian real estate market and he has gained international recognition and awards for his activity in litigation & arbitration. 

Markus Piuk is a partner at Schoenherr and an experienced corporate/m&a and energy lawyer. He has been a major contributor to the development of the firm's network in Southeast Europe, where he is currently running the local corporate/m&a and energy practices in several jurisdictions, including Romania. A highly regarded transactional lawyer in the region, with a strong track record in Austria and in CEE, he is particularly experienced in coordinating complex multijurisdictional matters. He has advised buyers and sellers on a considerable number of cross-border and local m&a transactions, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, loan portfolio sales and capital markets projects. In energy, his experience covers transactional work, project development and operation, as well and regulatory matters, assisting market players active in oil & gas, electricity and renewables. Markus has been admitted to the bar in Austria, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Croatia and Liechtenstein.

Matei Florea is a partner at Schoenherr and head of the firm's banking & finance practice group. He has been the main driver behind the development of Schoenherr's banking & finance practice in Romania as well as of the development of specific NPL-related products CEE-wide. His activity focuses mainly on deleveraging transactions, debt restructuring projects, bank M&A deals, financing and bank regulatory. He has worked on major bank consolidation projects and record-setting loan portfolio transactions in the local market and regional market. He advises on bank and direct lending projects, including project and real estate finance, acquisition finance, corporate lending, and municipal financing. His banking regulatory activity includes obtaining regulatory approval for a series of bank M&A deals, advice on complex consumer-related litigation cases, assisting several banks on currency conversation programmes and the implementation of the GDPR, etc. Matei also runs the firm's Bucharest practice group active in projects, concessions/PPP and public procurement.

Narcisa Oprea is a partner at Schoenherr Romania, where she has been heading the capital markets practice since 2008, when she joined the firm. With over 20 years of experience in this area, Narcisa has advised on various landmark capital markets transactions. She is certified as a trainer by the Romanian Financial Authority acting for various professional associations (more than 2,000 hours of trainings, more than 3,000 individuals attending). In addition, she is a very active lobbyist for changing the local capital markets legal framework to be better aligned with international standards. She was one of the coordinators of the Great Barriers Shift taskforce organised by the Coalition for the Development of Romania aiming to ensure the compliance of the legal framework with the requirements for upgrading Romanian capital markets at the emerging markets tier. She contributed to the OECD White Paper on Corporate Governance in Southeast Europe and acted as OECD rapporteur on the implementation of the OECD Corporate Governance Principles in Romania.

Simona Chirică, PhD is a partner at Schoenherr Romania and one of the firm's most experienced civil law and real estate lawyers. She has advised on a significant number of headline transactions in Romania, particularly in real estate and constructions, agribusiness and retail. She provides expert advice in real estate transactions, project development, construction, lease, asset management and operational matters. Simona assists real estate developers and investors, to investors active in the agribusiness sector, and retailers in connection with their expansion plans and day-to-day business. Her client portfolio also includes companies active in energy, consumer goods and manufacturing. She has particularly deep negotiating experience, having assisted on many complex transactions and contracts. She has managed a series of high-volume projects involving repetitive structures, including in connection with the sale or lease of real estate assets. Simona holds a PhD in legal sciences from the University of Bucharest and is a lecturer at Bucharest's Academy for Economic Studies.

Monica Cojocaru is a partner at Schoenherr Romania, where she specialises in corporate/M&A, energy, infrastructure and regulatory. She is an experienced transactional lawyer, acting on both the buy side and sell side in headline M&A deals on the Romanian and regional market in various sectors, such as financial services, private equity, energy, manufacturing, consumer goods, real estate, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and IT&C. As a specialised energy lawyer, Monica assists companies active in oil & gas, electricity, and renewables on the full range of legal matters in connection with their investments in Romania, as well as international bodies and national governments on legislation drafting initiatives. Thanks to her profound regulatory experience, she provides expert advice to clients operating in highly regulated industries, including energy, insurance, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Monica receives constant recognition from major international independent research bodies, such as Chambers Europe, Legal500, IFLR1000 and ILO Client Choice Awards.

Oana Constantinescu is a partner at Schoenherr Romania and an experienced specialist in real estate, construction and environmental law. She has assisted on a considerable number of real estate transactions and complex agreements, as well as on general real estate and construction matters, and has a strong track record in advising companies that own and manage large portfolios of real estate assets. She has supported such clients (mostly active in oil & gas and retail) in the acquisition or disposal of properties, as part of their expansion or operational plans, and is experienced in coordinating complex, large-volume projects for the legal assessment and clean-up of ownership titles under large-volume instructions. Oana provides expert advice on the full range of environmental law matters (including compliance, regulatory, liability aspects, risk allocation, pollution and decontamination) for clients active in the energy, manufacturing and retail sectors. In addition, she possesses industry-specific expertise in food law.

Georgiana Bădescu is a partner at Schoenherr and head of the firm's eu & competition practice in Romania. Her experience covers the full range of competition and state aid matters. Relevant projects include a consistent series of national and EU-level merger control cases, advice in virtually all large-scale sector inquiries or investigations for potential breaches conducted by the national competition authority, various competition assessments, general competition advice to an enviable portfolio of clients, as well as state aid matters. Her experience also includes assistance in ground-breaking projects, such as the monitoring of commitments undertaken by entities investigated by the Romanian competition regulator. She has conducted a considerable number of compliance audits, has implemented mock dawn raids, and has delivered competition training programmes to clients' teams. She is frequently invited as a speaker in competition events and has authored numerous articles on EU & competition legal topics.

Eva Hegedüs-Brown is a partner at Schoenherr Romania and an experienced member of our real estate practice group. Her core expertise includes the acquisition of industrial, agricultural and forest land, the restitution of property formerly seized during the Communist era, and construction projects. In her practice she focuses mainly on providing advice to companies that invest in and operate forest land in Romania, advising on their transactions and day-to-day business, including all matters involving forestry law, environmental law, corporate housekeeping, employment law, safety and security, hunting regulations, title insurance, and verifying and correcting Cadastral and Land Registry entries. Eva has been admitted to both the Austrian and the Bucharest Bar. She is also a member of the board of governors behind the Research Institute for Central and East-European Business Law at the Vienna University for Economics and Business Administration and is a trusted lawyer of the Austrian Embassy in Bucharest.

Mădălina Neagu is a partner at Schoenherr, where she specialises in corporate/M&A and technology & digitalisation. She is one of the firm's most experienced M&A lawyers, having assisted on a significant number of high-profile local and cross-border M&A deals, many of them involving leading market players. She has provided expert advice on the buy side and sell side in all phases of complex share deals, asset deals, transfers of business, corporate restructurings, joint ventures and privatisations, and loan portfolio sales, also covering acquisition finance. Her client portfolio includes Romanian and multinational companies active in various industries, including financial services, private equity, real estate and constructions, consumer goods, manufacturing, retail, IT&C, energy, hotels and leisure, etc. She is actively involved in various programmes aimed at supporting the development of the Romanian start-up community. Mădălina is recognised for her corporate/M&A activity by international legal directories such as Chambers and Partners, IFLR1000 and Legal500.

Theodor Artenie heads Schoenherr Tax Bucharest SRL, the tax advisory firm affiliated to Schoenherr Romania. Before joining the firm in 2013, he worked for eight years in a Big 4 advisory firm in Romania and the UK. A certified tax advisor with wide-ranging experience in managing complex cross-border tax projects, he advises multinational and local companies on the tax implications of high-profile M&A deals, non-performing loans portfolio sales, real estate acquisition transactions and complex capital markets projects. He also has a strong track record in advising clients in tax disputes, from initial tax investigations up to teaming up with litigation lawyers in designing the case strategy of complex tax litigation cases. Theodor provides day-to-day tax advisory to companies active in a variety of industries, covering all major tax advisory areas, and coordinates the firm's transfer pricing practice group. He is an active speaker at tax events and his opinions are regularly covered by local and regional business, tax and legal publications.

Mara Moga-Paler is a managing attorney at law and the head of Schoenherr Romania's employment practice. She is an experienced labour & employment lawyer, advising on a wide range of matters, including employment relationships, internal policies, discrimination issues, employee mobility, redundancies, disciplinary procedures, trade unions, collective matters including information and consultation procedures, corporate transactions and the Acquired Rights Directive (ARD), contracts with senior executives and corporate governance issues. She also has a strong track record in employment litigation. Mara has assisted many national and multinational companies active in a wide range of sectors, such as IT&C, financial services, insurance, healthcare, media, infrastructure, agriculture and investment funds. Before joining Schoenherr Romania in 2018, she worked for local and international law firms active in Romania, and managed legal teams in major IT&C companies and public institutions.

Carmen Știrbu is a managing attorney at law and the head of Schoenherr Romania's public procurement and data protection practices. With 20 years of professional experience, Carmen has a strong track record in projects, public procurement, data protection and project finance. She assists bidders on a wide range of public procurement aspects, including disputes and implementation of public contracts. On data protection and e-privacy, she has advised on company-wide GDPR compliance programmes, transactions, contractual dealings, investigations and responses to data subjects. Her portfolio of clients includes multinational and local companies active in various industries, including construction, transportation, insurance, energy, financial services, manufacturing, consumer goods, retail and IT&C. She is a regular speaker at specialised events and delivers legal training programmes in her areas of expertise.