Reff & Associates SCA – Member of Deloitte Legal

Number of local partners: 9 partners

Number of associate partners: 6

Number of local lawyers: 75

Languages: English, Romanian

Firm Overview:

Reff & Associates is one of the largest Romanian law firms by headcount with over 75 lawyers, and one of the fastest growing. As a member of Deloitte Legal, it belongs to an international legal network of over 1,800 lawyers operating in more than 75 countries. A full-scope business law firm, Reff & Associates assists large local and multinational investors, through high-quality legal services powered by a commercial and pragmatic approach to legal matters, leveraging the multidisciplinary expertise of Deloitte colleagues in areas such as tax, finance or business consulting. From assisting some of the largest transactions in Romania and CE region, to managing risk and compliance, to litigating, the firm handles projects in the range of hundreds of millions EUR every year.

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate & Commercial:

The team advises on the structuring and restructuring of investments, transfers of activity, mergers, de-mergers, joint ventures, including formation, corporate governance, minority rights and exit. In addition, the firm advices clients on various consumer and data protection aspects (including GDPR readiness), as well other regulatory matters, such as environmental, food safety and IP.

Mergers & Acquisitions:

The firm’s lawyers assist either the buy-side or the sell-side during the entire M&A cycle: MoU, due diligence and transaction structuring, drafting, negotiation and execution of the transaction documentation, transaction implementation and post-acquisition work.

Banking & Finance:

The firm assists clients in loan finance, debt restructuring, securitization, workouts, NPL deals and transfers of performing loans portfolios. Having acted for both lenders and borrowers/sponsors, the firm regularly works on structuring complex finance transactions, drafting and negotiating finance documents.

Capital Markets:

The firm provides assistance to publicly traded companies, securities firms and investors, covering securities compliance (market manipulation and insider dealing issues included), listing requirements, corporate governance, shares/rights prospectuses and assistance on stock option plans.

Real Estate:

The firm assists with structuring of real estate transactions, transaction support, title verifications, title insurance, zoning and urban planning advice, compliance review, construction (including FIDIC based) assistance, acquisition, disposals and divestments, and has advised in most of the largest real estate deals in the country over the last five years.

Insolvency:

The firm advises both creditors and debtors in various insolvency matters, during pre-insolvency and actual insolvency procedure, from entitlement to opening the procedure, to structuring deals in insolvency procedure, to possibilities to close the insolvency, assessments of existing options, preservation of rights, defending against other parties’ claims or challenging their rights.

Competition:

Reff & Associates advises on a wide range of competition issues, including competition and antitrust compliance, investigations by the competition authority, analysis of distribution agreements, etc. The firm has a detailed understanding of law matters related to economic concentrations and provides representation in front of the Competition Council.

Employment:

The practice helps companies deal efficiently with labour law matters by providing customised contractual solutions, clear and effective internal regulations and compliant procedures in restructuring, compliance and litigation.

Energy:

The firm has acquired vast experience in providing legal services for large national and international projects in the energy sector, dealing both with all regulatory aspects and the related legal and commercial aspects of the respective contracts.

PPP & Public Procurement:

The team provides legal assistance to both public and private entities on a wide variety of public procurement, concession, PPP and EU funded projects. The firm has a vast experience gained through various complex assignments, including drafting the toolkit for applying the concession legislation in Romania, as well as preparation of a model concession agreement for InterModal Terminals under an European Investment Bank assignment.

Litigation:

The firm represents clients in general commercial, civil and employment litigation, including corporate disputes, recovery of debts, real estate litigation, settlements and forced execution. In tax litigations, the firm leverages the cooperation with Deloitte tax team ensuring that all tax and legal issues are successfully covered.

Business Criminal Law:

The firm offer specialised services ranging from general consultancy, prevention and compliance in criminal law matters, to assistance during the criminal investigation or in front of courts of law.

Deal Highlights:

■