How Bucharest was erased from Linklater's map

Each of them had to go a long way to persuade international partners to choose him as company head. While Nick Eastwell enjoyed the support of the head of Linklaters’ Bucharest office, Michael Schilling, he lost out to Simon Davies.

According to the Linklaters website, Davies became global Managing Partner in 2008. His first major move was the firm’s withdrawal from Romania’s region, managed by Eastwell, which meant the closure of four offices, including that in Bucharest.

Was there a connection between Linklaters’ departure and the Schilling-Eastwell connection? “No. Do you really think that such a major company bases its international strategy on someone’s personal problems,” Nick Eastwell told Business Standard.

Domino effect
After this defeat, Eastwell had to console himself with heading the management of emerging markets, including Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa. Several months after Davies took over, Eastern Europe was wiped off Linklaters’ map. The official reason was that the firm plans to focus on larger markets. Internal discussions, brought up by sources close to them, was that the four offices that were to be closed, Bucharest, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest, were bringing in as much business as the Moscow office, but at double the cost.

The deal struck with the four offices was that they would form a company with regional operations, in close collaboration with Linklaters. But Schilling, whose name was not in the new company’s organizational chart, has become a non-Executive Manager of local A&D Pharma pharmaceutical distributor and retailer.

Canadian-born Michael Terault Schilling is seen as the one who brought Linklaters to Romania. People who know him speak of less than orthodox means of talking London partners into this move at the time. His opulent lifestyle is well known on the local legal market: he was rarely seen without his “army” of bodyguards.

Tumultuous history
Linklaters entered Romania in 2000, under the management of Michael Schilling, following its takeover of the Burns Schwartz firm. Schilling, who was head of the local Burns Schwartz office, and Jason Mogg, Manager of the Burns Schwartz office in Slovakia, met with Nick Eastwell to propose the affiliation of the two regional entities with the London-based giant.

At the time, other giants on the legal market indicated that the Linklaters move was very bold, because Romania was a very small market. The Burns Schwartz local heritage includes major law firms, such as Racoti-Predoiu (which later became Zamfirescu Racoti-Predoiu) and Budusan Baldea (Alexandru Baldea, a former head of Rompetrol oil company’s legal department after leaving Burns Schwartz, founded his own company in 2007).

After one year of operations in Romania, Linklaters received its first major blow: the heads of Real Estate and Capital Markets, Dragos Radu and Dan Badea, opted for a spin-off, Badea, Radu si Asociatii. This decision provoked a major scandal within the company at the time.

Sources say that the Radu and Badea sent an email to all the company’s international partners, in which they spoke of Schilling in not so glowing terms. Because he was a partner, Schilling also received the email. Consequently, Badea and Radu were denied any further access to the company’s office and the bodyguards made sure that the decision was enforced.

Three years later, another three lawyers left Linklaters to set up a new company with Dragos Radu - Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu (RTPR). The firm was involved in a major deal, the privatization of Romania’s largest lender, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR). They represented Portuguese lender Millennium, which lost out in the final stage to Austrian Erste group, buyer of the local bank.

This year, RTPR associated with another giant, Allen&Overy (A&O). Dan Badea was already associated with Clifford Chance. Both A&O and Clifford Chance are part of the Magic Circle, the top five law firms in London, which includes Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer and Slaughter&May.

In early 2007, Linklaters received another blow, when its Managing Associate and head of Banking&Finance, Adrian Bulboaca, quit to set up his own firm, whose business could exceed €2 million this year.
In this entire period Linklaters was involved in major deals, as it was considered specialized in the top privatizations: Petrom oil company, BCR lender, Distrigaz natural gas distributor and Electrica energy company.

In April 2007, Schilling was promoted to a regional management position to be replaced by Ted Cominos, one of the first expatriate lawyers to come to Romania. However, Cominos decides to quit the company five months later. He had been working closely with British Ethemba Capital investment fund, a Linklaters client. In fact, his collaboration was so close, that he was invited to become Fund Manager. Cominos agreed, leaving the Bucharest office without management.

He was to be replaced by Daniel Torsher, head of the Linklaters office in Slovakia. However, local lawyer Marian Dinu was to act as interim head. Meanwhile, Delia Pachiu, head of Real Estate, decided to follow lawyer Todd Schollenbarger, who used to work for Linklaters, to set up the local office of the White&Case law firm.

But the big surprise was yet to come. This April, Business Standard announced the news that Linklaters was to split off from its four regional offices. The information had not yet been announced internally to the Bucharest office. At the time, talks were ongoing to separate from the local office. There were two management options: Michael Schilling and Marian Dinu.

The regional company founded by the four offices split from Linklaters, which was named Kinstellar, an anagram of Linklaters, was to be headed by Jason Mogg. The best solution to the liking of all the local lawyers was to appoint Daniel Torsher as head of the Bucharest office. But this did not last long.

Kinstellar was to announce its arrival on the market and its new name in November. Shortly before that moment, Marian Dinu and another ten lawyers left the company. Dinu was appointed head of DLA Piper law firm’s local office. Kinstellar’s reaction was described as Schilling-style: Dinu was thrown out by the bodyguards, albeit triumph - he is likely the last heir of the Linklaters pedigree in Romania.