Name partners at big law firm in Bucharest split

Francisc Peli and Cristina Filip, the two name partners of PeliFilip, one of the biggest law firms in Bucharest, have decided to split.

Francisc Peli, one of the best-known real estate lawyers on the local market, and his wife Carmen Peli have decided to leave the firm they co-founded in 2008, and set up a new practice under the PELI brand, they announced in a press release.

Cristina Filip will continue as managing partner of Filip & Company, and her firm will keep much of the PeliFilip team, the firm announced. Cristina Filip, who has been managing partner of PeliFilip since 2016, has made it her goal to make this the first local law firm that will turn one hundred. To achieve this goal, the company will be putting into place "a system that will allow everyone in Filip & Company to be recognized, valued and rewarded based on the equal opportunity principle."

"We have set out to create a company where the brand survives the partners. They may come and go. And our company certainly means much more than Cristina Filip’s vision or the total competence of the partners. Few things are truly resilient and lasting in Romania. I hope Filip & Company is one of them,” Cristina Filip, Managing Partner Filip & Company.

The firm's press release suggests that implementing this vision, which "will go beyond the rapid growth, regardless of the cost frame of mind", has led to the departure of some of the firm's partners.

Meanwhile, Francisc and Carmen Peli announced they would come to the market with a team of lawyers from the new generation, to reform the practices in their portfolio and maintain the leading position in these areas. They took with them Oana Badarau, the former partner and head of real estate at PeliFilip, who will have the same role in the new firm, and Mihnea Galgotiu-Sararu, the former head of PeliFilip’s litigation department, who will be partner and head of dispute resolution PELI.

Francisc Peli will be the new firm’s managing partner, a role he also held at PeliFilip between 2008 and 2015. Carmen Peli will be partner and will coordinate the M&A/corporate practice.

Francisc Peli, Carmen Peli, and Cristina Filip founded PeliFilip in 2008, after they left NNDKP, one of the oldest and biggest law firms in Romania. In over 10 years, PeliFilip has become one of the biggest law firms in Bucharest, with 56 lawyers registered at the Bucharest Bar (NNDKP is still the biggest with 106), and was twice declared Romanian Law Firm of the Year by Chambers Europe.