Ioana Hrisafi-Josan

Ioana Hrisafi-Josan co-heads the firm's litigation and arbitration practice group, the largest department within the firm.

She has successfully covered a wide range of contentious administrative litigation cases, especially complex tax and competition disputes, as well as litigation concerning permits and authorization in telecommunications sectors.

She is dealing also with a variety of litigation cases in the pharma sector, including disputes related to patents between originators and generics companies, consumer protection litigation, as well as labour disputes.

Ioana Hrisafi-Josan is a pleading lawyer at Romanian courts of all levels, including in front of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Constitutional Court.

In addition, she has been involved in complex domestic and international arbitration files.

She has experience working as judge for several years at one of the Bucharest courts of law.  

She is fluent in English. 

Relevant Matters:

• Coordinator of the legal team retained by a major manufacturer of oral, personal and care products in the court proceedings during the first instance court and then during the appeal proceedings in front of the High Court of Cassation and Justice against the decision of the Competition Council which imposed a fine of EUR 3,000,000. 
• Litigating a fine imposed by the Competition Council for an alleged exchange of sensitive commercial information between insurance companies through the professional association.
• Coordinator of the legal team in a follow-up litigation regarding damages following a decision of the European Commission which fined several manufacturers for having participated in several conducts in breach of Article 101 TFEU and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement.
• Coordinator of the legal team retained by the number one integrated oil and gas group in Central Europe in a EUR 7,000,000 litigation arising from tax exemptions for exported products.
• Coordinator of the legal team handling a tax dispute concerning the annulment of supplementary VAT of approximately EUR 13,700,000 established in connection with economic gas trading operations. The dispute relates to the qualification from a VAT perspective of natural gas transactions carried out by foreign entities which have obtained the trading licence on the territory of Romania through a branch set up for this purpose.
• Coordinator of the legal team retained by a Romanian company acting in the oil drilling services and related activities in a EUR 1,000,000 tax dispute, regarding the enforcement of a debt restructuring convention; representation thereto during both administrative and court proceedings.      
• Coordinator of the legal team retained by a major Romanian bank for handling a set of more than 900 consumer litigation cases in which the bank was involved in.
• Coordinator of the legal team retained by a major pharmaceutical company in connection with a court challenge of a decision of the Romanian Health Ministry granting the statutes of generic drug to a pharmaceutical drug of a client’s competitor, for which the client held a patent.
• Coordinator of the legal team retained by the biggest electricity producer in the Czech Republic in connection with a set of court disputes arisen out of the interpretation and application of the collective bargain agreement concluded with the trade unions of the company.