Leading Romanian law firm Muşat & Asociaţii and international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf are pleased to announce the International Arbitration Conference they co-organized and which took place today, March 19th. The main topics covered by this event were the promotion and protection of international investments, current issues in international commercial arbitration in Romania, and the impact of Romania’s EU accession on dispute resolution arising from infrastructure and construction projects.
Sustained growth of the Romanian economy has forged increasingly complex business relationships, and commercial arbitration cases in Romania today involve sophisticated transactions of high financial value.
The number of business situations in which the parties choose to resolve their disputes through arbitration is on the rise, fueled by certain advantages: swift and simplified procedures, transparency, lower costs in most cases and the benefit of appointing qualified professionals to resolve the dispute.
This conference covered current issues of commercial arbitration in Romania, presented by Ion Dragne, Co-Managing Partner of Muşat & Asociaţii, along with recent developments in international commercial arbitration, presented by Eric Schwartz, Partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf and co-head of the International Arbitraion Practice. Eliseo Castineira discussed the resolution of disputes arising from infrastructure and construction projects, and Sabine Konrad of Dewey & LeBoeuf provided attendees with information regarding protections available to Foreign Investors under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties.
The International Arbitration Conference organized by Muşat & Asociaţii and Dewey & Le Boeuf took place on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008, starting with 9.30 a.m. at the offices of Muşat & Asociaţii office at 43 Aviatorilor Bldv.
About Commercial Arbitration
Arbitration is the alternative settlement of commercial disputes. As opposed to disputes settled by courts of law, the purpose of arbitration is to settle the parties’ conflict through an irrevocable award. This alternative dispute settlement method is therefore regarded as a private form of justice.
The reason for initiating an arbitration procedure is precisely the parties’ will to settle the conflict before a court of arbitration, rather than before a court of law. Thus, arbitration disputes are settled by private persons, named arbitrators, vested by the parties with the power to clarify the legal issues under discussion and to pass a binding award that may be enforced. Such award communicated to the parties has the same value as a final court decision. The value of the Romanian arbitration market is estimated at EUR 20-25 million out of the total legal services market.
About MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII
MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII is one of the first law firms set up in Romania after January 1st, 1990. With 11 partners, more than 85 attorneys and further 40 fee-earners, Musat & Asociatii provides consultancy services for all sectors of the business law, including mergers & acquisitions, privatizations, banking, energy & natural resources, competition, company law, telecommunications & IT, labor law, fiscal law, capital markets, real estate law, environmental law, as well as in litigations & commercial arbitrations.
For more than 17 years, MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII has been recognized as one of the pillars of the Romanian business law and the foreign specialized publications regularly recommend the company as one of the leaders of the domestic law market. Starting this year, the company is directed by a “managing committee” composed of Gheorghe Musat, Senior Partner, company founder, and two Co-Managing Partners: Catalin Baiculescu and Ion Dragne.
The company portfolio includes more than 2,500 clients, large local or international corporations, among which there are: Enel SpA, NOKIA, ABN AMRO Bank, Fortis Bank, Orange, PPF Investments, European Investment Bank, BERD, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, ING Real Estate, General Electric, General Motors, Intel Corp, Oracle, AON, AT&T, KBC Bank, Piraeus Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, OTP Bank, Thyssen Krupp, Generali, Immoeast Corporate Finance Consulting, Equest Investment, Petrom, AFI Europe, Electrolux, SBS Broadcasting Corporation, Liebrecht & Wood, Atlas Estates.
About Dewey & LeBoeuf
Dewey & LeBoeuf is an international New York-headquartered law firm with more than 1400 lawyers in 13 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, China, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Dewey & LeBoeuf was created on 1 October 2007 upon the merger of two leading international law firms, Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae.
Dewey & LeBoeuf is characterized by market-leading practice groups such as international arbitration, mergers and acquisitions, complex litigation, intellectual property litigation, government investigations, international trade, capital markets, structured finance, private equity, antitrust, tax and bankruptcy. The firm possesses leading industry experience in sectors including banking, energy, utilities, insurance, sports and entertainment, life sciences and healthcare, and telecommunications consumer electronics and manufacturing.
For further information, please contact:
Andreea Melinte
Marketing & PR Manager Muşat & Asociaţii
Phone: 021 202 59 00; 0722 522 881
E-mail: andreeam@musat.ro