White & Case in Romania by year-end

The company negotiated with several medium-sized and large domestic law firms to close a partnership, but later decided to establish a greenfield office in Romania. The local subsidiary’s head is likely to be U.S. lawywe Todd Shollenbarger, a former Linklaters partner. Shollenbarger declined to confirm or deny the information, when contacted by Business Standard.

White & Case Budapest representatives confirmed the company’s interest to open an office in Romania and the discussions with domestic companies, but declined to provide details on the current stage of expansion. The company’s annual business tops €800 million.

“If White & Case were to open a greenfield office in Romania, large law firms, especially Nestor and Musat (Ed.n.: Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen and Musat & Asociatii, two of the top local law firms) must be really careful with their staff, mainly with the senior sector, because a tough personnel recruitment campaign will follow,” said sources close to the business.

The main targets might be lawyers that worked locally with White & Case or those who worked at Linklaters. At least a further foreign lawyer, except Shollenbarger, will come to the new office.

Sources say the office will initially employ a maximum of 10 lawyers. The top international law firms in Romania are Clifford Chance and Linklaters. They rank first and second worldwide. “The Romanian market is a very dynamic one. Of course, some pressure on salaries will appear and last up to six months or a year, but the existence of a large company on the market will increase training capacity as well as the number of good lawyers,” said Badea Clifford Chance’s Managing partner, Daniel Badea.

Most law firms do not believe that White & Case coming to Romania will affect their business. However, a new player might take on other companies’ clients by taking their lawyers, and thus the clients they manage, Voicu & Filipescu partner, Mugur Filipescu told Business Standard.