3 million euros for highest paid lawyer last year
The highest paid lawyer in Romania works in Bucharest and
officially made 12.27 million RON (about 3 million euros) last
year, that is 250,000 euros per month, reveal data supplied to ZF
by the National Fiscal Administration Agency.
The ranking of the ten highest incomes made by independent
professionals in 2009 is dominated by lawyers, with nine out of ten
positions.
The total value of the incomes made by the people in the top ten
throughout the country amounts to 76.9 million RON (18 million
euros) down by about 10% compared with 2008.
Despite the collapse of the economy and of the private businesses,
the need for legal services was comparable to 2008.
Lawyers made money last year, too, despite the fact that their
traditional markets such as mergers and acquisitions, real estate
and bank loans collapsed, as did the business of retail and
construction companies.
The ten biggest law firms on the local market collected 87.6
million euros in revenues last year, down by merely 1% compared
with the previous year, which makes this market one of the least
affected by the recession of 2009.
Lawyers' incomes do not appear to be very transparent at first.
Lawyers file annual tax returns with the fiscal authorities, but
not with the Trade Registry, considering they have their own
professional organisation, the National Union of Bar Councils in
Romania, a lawyer explained.