Allen & Overy Start Office In Romania

Allen & Overy LLP and Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu SCA (RTPR), one of the leading independent law firms in Romania, have entered an exclusive partnership effective as of 1 July 2008. Allen & Overy are thus expanding into Central and Eastern Europe given the increasing interest in the Romanian market, following the country"s accession to the EU.

The new office will be operated as "Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu SCA in Association with Allen & Overy LLP" and coordinated by Jane Townsend, Regional Managing Partner Allen & Overy for Central Europe. Commenting on the association, Jane said: "For some time, we have been working closely and very successfully together with RTPR on transactions in Romania. There is a clear need from our clients for us to have an office in Bucharest and we believe associating with RTPR is the best way of serving client needs with the relevant local expertise. The caliber of their people, combined with their reputation and collegiate working ethos, make RTPR a natural fit with Allen & Overy."

Wim Dejonghe, Managing Partner at Allen & Overy continues: "This is a natural extension of our footprint in Central and Eastern Europe, which is an important and already successful region for Allen & Overy. We believe this is a key time for the legal services market in Romania and working exclusively in association with RTPR, Allen & Overy is now ideally placed to capitalize on these developments."

Founded in May 2004, RTPR is a young, dynamic and highly ranked Romanian law firm, based in Bucharest. There are five partners (Dragos Radu, Costin Taracila, Victor Padurari, Alexandru Retevoescu and Mihai Ristici) and a total of 33 lawyers, offering a full service to a prestigious portfolio of national and international clients such as Citibank, Copper Beech, EBRD, Enterprise Investors, Eurobank Properties, RAEF/Enterprise Capital, National Bank of Greece and UPC.