Financial Times: Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații tops this year’s FT Continental European table on innovation
Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații is the sole Eastern European law firm included in the Financial Times` Innovative Lawyers report and takes top ranking as the most innovative Continental European law firm in 2009.
On October 22nd, the Financial Times launched its fourth edition of the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers report, in the presence of more than 400 lawyers and in-house counsels from law firms and leading companies across Europe.
The content of the 2009 report reflects the shift of focus onto lawyers’ activities in the light of the credit crisis and economic recession. It is an in-depth research into the ways lawyers have helped their clients adapt to changing market conditions and, implicitly, how the lawyers have adapted.
For the third year running, Romania has been represented among the elite of the European legal industry, alongside well-known firms such as Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Allen & Overy, Eversheds, DLA Piper, Linklaters, Slaughter and May etc.
Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații received a total of 288 points for all entries submitted and secured the top slot in the FT Continental European table, followed by Garrigues (Spain), Portolano Colella Cavallo (Italy), Arthur Cox (Ireland), Cuatrecasas (Spain). A total of 18 law firms were ranked in the FT Continental European table from countries such as France, Germany, Turkey, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, with scores ranging from 18 to 240 points.
„Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații, the Romanian firm, moved quickly to develop and implement a firm-wide anti-crisis programme at a time when Romania was yet to be affected by the economic downturn”, stated the journalists from the Financial Times.
In the FT Law 50 index which listed the top 50 performers in Europe (including the London-based international law firms), Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații ranked 7th as it surpassed a range of notable players such as CMS, Ashurst, Garrigues, DLA Piper, Simmons and Simmons, Norton Rose, Cuatrecasas, White & Case, Shearman & Sterling, Noerr Stiefenhofer Lutz, Wolf Theiss. It is for the first time that an East European law firm holds a top slot in these prestigious awards, alongside the traditional leaders of the law league tables, including the Magic Circle ones.
“The negative effects of the financial crisis and resulting world-wide recession forced lawyers to rethink their client service and management models. With no exception, all of the players in the European legal market have reacted to the tougher market conditions. For many, innovation became the key to weather the crisis”, said Florentin Țuca, Managing Partner at Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații.
The efforts and the creativity of the Romanian law firm were recognised in various categories of the report, thus confirming its unequivocal commitment to apply robust and long-lasting principles of professional business conduct.
Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații was ranked in the following areas of the report:
- Standout in Law Firm Management, for having assembled a range of measures to address the economic crisis, from discounting fees to setting-up an insolvency practice and a Crisis Knowledge Center www.ckc.tuca.ro;
- Standout in Billing and Fees and Highly Commended in the same category of the report, for implementing a risk-sharing billing method with banking clients and, respectively, for offering fixed-fees in Romanian Lei in time of currency fluctuations;
- Commended in Financial Crisis and the Downturn, for setting-up TZA Insolvență S.P.R.L., a separate specialist insolvency unit;
- Commended in Financial Services, for having successfully managed and implemented the reshaping process of Erste’s Romanian asset management company;
- Commended in Changing the Rules, for putting together Romania's most complex memorandum of understanding to facilitate the country's largest foreign direct investment to be undertaken by Austrian company Voestalpine AG;
- Commended in Government, for successfully defending, on a pro bono basis, the Romanian Government in a file before the Constitutional Court of Romania initiated by a local party that challenged the uninominal Parliamentary elections of November 2008.
According to the Financial Times’ representatives, a number of 600 submissions were received from law firms across Europe and the top 50 performers were presented in the FT Law 50 index. Each submission is then thoroughly assessed by the Financial Times’ journalists for its originality, rationale and impact of the innovation. More than 500 telephone and face-to-face, qualitative, in-depth interviews with lawyers, referees and expert commentators were conducted.