Ion Nestor, managing partner of law firm Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (NNDKP), one of the largest players on the Romanian market, believes the legal market could decline by up to 20% this year and is also considering a decline in the revenues of the firm he is heading.
"Due to the economic situation we put off the approval of the budget until the beginning of the new year in order to have a clearer picture of the market and to build a realistic budget. The economy will see a significant decline this year, with the legal market to contract by up to 20%. As far as we are concerned, we are considering several scenarios, from stagnation to minus 20%," Ion Nestor told ZF.
After a few good years of sustained growth, law firms find themselves before the first rather difficult year, with large firms providing for a stagnation in revenues in their optimistic scenarios.
Over the last two years, revenues of major firms doubled, while a partner lawyer with one of the top ranking firms now earns as much as 700,000 euros per year.
NNDKP has around 100 lawyers and posted revenues worth 14.8 million euros in 2008, up 17% on the previous year. Two of the partners whose names are found in the firm's name, Andrew Kingston and Patricia Petersen, left the firm, but the name remained unchanged.
Lawyers are responding well to the idea that for some clients they have to reduce their fees in order to keep them in their portfolio, while the shortcomings of non-performing lawyers are more obvious in this period in which the team could be optimised.
"We have not had any lawyers leave because of the crisis. The fluctuations that have and could appear over the course of this year are normal for a firm with over 100 lawyers. We continue to recruit personnel, including for sectors that do not generate that many contracts at present, but our strategy targets much more than the next six months," says Nestor.
NNDKP is one of the first law firms set up on the Romanian market immediately after the 1989 revolution by Ion and Manuela Nestor. The firm is based in Bucharest Business Park in Northern Bucharest, where it has recently rented out another floor, reaching 3,500 square metres of office space.
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