Interview with the Partners of the New NGL Symbio Alliance.

New technologies are all the rage, as law firms adapt to the telecommuting and digitalization realities that accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, we decided to ask our Law Firm Marketing experts from across the region a simple question: “What is the single most important/valuable piece of software you use?” As always, we asked respondents to focus on the question at hand, rather than – as we put it – using the question simply as an excuse to “tell us that their firms are awesome.” Not everyone was able to resist.

Otilia Vilcu has become Partner at GNP Guia Naghi and Partners.

The Bucharest office of DLA Piper has advised Romanian mobile gaming studio Green Horse Games on an unspecified investment into the company from mobile game developer Miniclip.

Vincentiu Constantin has been made Managing Associate and Head of Dispute Resolution at Leroy si Asociatii in Romania.

On January 19, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Bondoc si Asociatii had advised independent electricity and gas supplier Restart Energy on its cooperation agreement with DC-based consulting and fund management company Interlink Capital Strategies to develop green energy projects worth USD 500 million in Romania and neighboring countries and to launch the blockchain-based RED platform in the USA. CEEIHM spoke with Armand Domuta, Chairman of the board at Restart Energy, to learn more about the agreement.

Buzescu Ca has advised US web search company Algolia on its acquisition of the Romanian subsidiary of AI tech company MorphL AI, which was advised by the US's Polsinelli law firm. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe advised Algolia on US law matters.

Although Romanian law established criminal liability of organisations in 2006, thus adopting a liability model very similar to that of France, Belgium and Portugal, there is still a lot of confusion when it comes to determining when an organisation is to be held criminally liable. From what we see in our day-to-day activity, the courts are still struggling to determine when offences committed by the management of an organisation can also trigger the criminal liability of the organisation itself.

In follow-up to our summary regarding the preliminary evaluation for the banks’ authorisation, as detailed in Regulation no. 12/2020 on the authorization of credit institutions and amendments pertaining to the same (“Regulation 12/2020”), and our summary regarding the information and documentation to be submitted by a bank in order to obtain authorisation from the National Bank of Romania (the “NBR”), we will highlight below the main amendments regarding banks that need to be approved by and registered by the NBR once the bank is authorised.

Dentons has advised automotive supplier Brandl Industries on the sale of its operating subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Romania and its German management service company to International Alexander Holding. Financial details were not disclosed.

Former Popovici Nitu Stoica & Associatii Partner Cristian Popescu has left that firm to become a Partner at Dentons in Bucharest.

Schoenherr has advised Agricover on the issuance of EUR 40 million in corporate bonds and on their admission to trading on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The Commercial Bank of Romania and BRD Groupe Societe Generale acted as sole coordinators of the issuance.

Cybersecurity is at the forefront of the European Union (“EU”)’s efforts to build a resilient, green and digital Europe. In this respect, on December 16, 2020, the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy presented the European Union’s new Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade (the “EU Cybersecurity Strategy”).

In follow-up to our summary regarding the preliminary evaluation for the banks’ authorisation, as detailed in Regulation no. 12/2020 on the authorization of credit institutions and amendments pertaining to the same (“Regulation 12/2020”), we will shortly review below the information and documentation to be submitted by a bank in order to obtain authorisation from the National Bank of Romania (the “NBR”).

Buzescu Ca has advised Danfoss on the sale of a land plot containing a factory and office space in the Bucharest metropolitan area to Transparent Design. The buyer was advised by Notary Maria Terovan.

Given the importance of human rights in general and children rights in particular, the European Union (the “EU”) has considered that the international treaties do not offer an adequate level of protection of minors during criminal trials, and therefore, a common legal framework is necessary.

Regulation no. 12 of December 18, 2020 on the authorization of credit institutions and amendments pertaining to the same (the “Regulation 12/2020”) issued by the National Bank of Romania (the “NBR”) was published in the Official Gazette no. 1291 as of December 2020 and is applicable starting with the same date.

Act Ban & Karika has helped Germany's Bader Group reorganize within the framework of the cross-border insolvency proceeding of its Hungarian subsidiary.