Businesspeople owe a lot to lawyers. Almost all major deals havebeen assisted by a bunch of Romanian lawyers, says Gheorghe Musat,one of the most respected business lawyers.
According to his calculations, around 60% of the partners of thetop ten law firms on the Romanian market have worked with Musat& Asociatii firm he runs.
Some of the lawyers chose to follow their own path, which hasnot affected the performance of the firm that much, which hasremained a top player on the business law market in the past 20years.
But the first years were not necessarily easy ones. "My startwas much tougher than that of any other lawyer. '89 caught me with17 RON in my pocket and a few friends at whose places I could goand have dinner. In early January I was accepted again in the barwith plaudits (...) Zamfirescu was already renowned, Nestor camefrom a well-known institute, Florea, Stoica already had a name. Iwas coming back at the bar after four years of jail in Aiud, as apolitical convict, and another two years as a taxi-driver in Garade Nord," Musat recalls.
"I became aware law careers would follow different coordinatesand I was waiting for the dawn of capitalism. Thus, at the end of1990 I already had private clients (...) It was the time of thefirst foreign investors," says the lawyer who has meanwhile come torun a firm with over 70 lawyers and revenues worth above 15m eurosin 2008.
The firm's business started in a rented studio in PiataVictoriei and then Musat bought a 4-room apartment and afterwardsthe apartments on an entire floor in Titulescu area. And clientsstarted to come. "I do not know how I made it in that period. Iused to work 14-16 hours a day, almost to the point of exhaustion,but I had a huge enthusiasm".
Musat initially started to work with experienced lawyers, but in1991 decided to start from scratch, recruiting only younglawyers.
Musat & Asociatii and the firms set up by lawyers that leftthe law firm last year collected fees worth around 50m euros,around one third of the total value of the market, put at 150-200meuros.
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