One of the state''s lawyers in the case of the sale of Petrom has switched sides.
He is now leading the biggest team of lawyers in any Romanian company.
Until the end of 2004, Marian Dinu, 31, acted as the state''s lawyer in the privatisation of Petrom, Romania''s biggest company. During negotiations between the Romanian state and the Austrian group OMV, Dinu attracted the attention of Werner Schinhan, a member of the Austrian delegation, now the deputy general manager of Petrom.
Shortly after the deal was sealed, Schinhan presented Dinu with another challenge, that of changing camp and taking over the largest law department of a Romanian company, with a view to restructuring it into a high performance team.
This is how Dinu came to run Petrom''s Corporate Business-Juridical Department, becoming the direct subordinate of Werner Schinhan.
"I accepted this challenge to see what happens after the light goes off. That is, after Petrom''s privatisation was finalised," explains Dinu.
Through this transition, the chief of Petrom''s juridical department is affecting not only the company he is part of, but also the business law counsellors market, an area from which increasing numbers of experts are being hunted.
"Our major project is the same as that of Petrom as a whole, namely transformation. We are talking about Petrom''s transformation into a modern and profitable company, which involves many issues, both in terms of procedures and organisation, as well as with regard to the reshuffling of commercial relationships with partners. This major project obviously has many specific aspects and in most cases our involvement is necessary," says Marian Dinu.
For his restructuring of the "legal side" of Petrom, which includes more than 100 people, Dinu has been granted freedom of movement by Schinhan.
"My ambition is that the Corporate Business-Juridical Department should function like a genuine law firm, as far as this is possible.
"This entails, among other things, the creation of a culture that is specific to a service provider, namely endeavouring to provide high-quality services leading to satisfied customers who feel we are a help, and not a hindrance to them as they conduct their business.
"To boost the efficiency of this department, we have taken certain steps.
Alignment to our customers, namely business units, has led to the need to develop a structure based around specialised services.
The new organisation was implemented starting April 2005, and by that date the law department had not been specialised," Marian Dinu also said.
The department was organised into six services - Marketing & Refining Legal (lawyers specialised in fuel refining and distribution); E&P for exploration and production, including services for the newly created gas unit; Litigations; Environment; Real Estate; and service dealing with problems linked to land (Land Affairs).
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