Biris Goran SPARL

The firm: Biriş Goran is a Romanian law firm of approximately 40 lawyers and tax consultants. With one partner licensed to practice in the US and most of the senior associates educated, trained or licensed in various European countries, the firm offers business advice to Western standards to its wide range of clients, including multinational corporations, investment funds and local high-net-worth entrepreneurs. The firm focuses primarily on transactional work, including tax, corporate/M&A, real estate, competition, litigation, labour, energy, data protection, IP, IT&C,  as well as insolvency and public acquisitions. The firm is also widely recognized as having the top tax practice in Romania.

Biriș Goran is a member of NGL Symbio, a new international alliance built by partnering strong law firms in the CEE region: Biriș Goran in Romania, Rowan Legal in the Czech Republic, NGL Legal in Poland, Erdős Katona in Hungary, and HKV in Slovakia. As a solid regional player in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) with strong ties to the Baltics, Balkans & Adriatics (BBA), NGL Symbio offers fast and easy access to diversified regions with consistent practice and quality support and represents a new option on the market for clients looking for well-organised, integrated service originating from the CEE region.

Areas of practice
Taxation: the firm has extensive experience in tax planning, structuring cross-border transactions and tax litigation. In addition, the tax group advises on a wide array of taxation matters, such as direct and indirect taxation, customs and leasing, transfer pricing, thin-capitalisation issues, personal income taxation and tax litigation. The tax group is lead by Gabriel Biris and Ruxandra Jianu, leading tax law experts, heavily involved in the consultations regarding the drafting of amendments to the Romanian Fiscal Code and its implementation legislation.

A forte of the firm’s practice is tax litigation, where we currently represent institutional clients against the tax authorities on litigation related to VAT reimbursements, excise and other fiscal obligations and tax audits, for EUR
multi-million amounts. As particular detail to support the “innovative” attribute of the firm’s litigation practice, in some administrative and tax disputes our
arguments found successful in court determined the Romanian state to amend the legislation in the energy and tax sectors.
Contacts: Gabriel Biris and Ruxandra Jianu

Antitrust/competition: the firm’s antitrust/competition practice is lead by Gelu Goran, with over 26 years of experience in competition matters, including regulatory authority experience as former attorney with the Romanian Competition Council. Among others, the firm offers merger control assistance, and regularly advises clients on price fixing and collusion investigations, as well as exclusive dealing arrangements and antitrust compliance and audits. LafarageHolcim, JT International, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Siemens and UniCredit Bank are among the most important companies advised by the firm.
Contact: Gelu Goran

Real estate: the firm’s real estate practice group represents clients in all aspects of real estate investments, from sales or purchases of shopping centers, hotels, office buildings, hypermarkets and raw land, commercial and hotel leasing, retail or warehouse roll-out programmes, to joint ventures with private parties or governmental bodies (PPPs), as well as the representation of lenders and developers in all types of lending and re-financing arrangements. The firm has strong expertise in advising on real estate financing and taxation and tax efficient investment structures, providing a cutting edge ‘one-stop’ shop for real estate investments in Romania, as it continues to advise on ’headline’ transactions in the country.
Contacts: Daniela Lazea and Sorin Aungurenci

Finance and restructuring: Real estate finance is a leading practice area of the finance team, and lawyers within the finance team have advised on many high profile real estate finance transactions in Romania. Working closely with the real estate and tax teams, team members have acquired substantial experience in structuring complex financings for the acquisition of real estate assets and portfolios as well as for construction of residential, offices and shopping malls projects. In the last year the firm’s team specialized also in financing through bonds issuance, an alternative method of financing which is rather undeveloped in Romania as compared to other jurisdictions.

Lawyers within the finance team also have an established record of advising on a broad range of acquisition finance transactions and related aspects, including LBOs, compliance with the prohibition of financial assistance and structuring of security packages and have drafted and negotiated project documentation as well as financing documentation and have advised banks, international financial institutions and sponsors in public infrastructure and manufacturing facilities in Romania.
Contact: Daniela Lazea

Litigation and insolvency: the firm provides its clients with comprehensive advice at every stage of a controversy, whether it is proactive problem avoidance, effective negotiation and settlement, or vigorous advocacy both in court and before governmental agencies and tribunals. Tax litigation is a particular specialty of the firm and the tax practice’s deep knowledge of the litigation and the practice of the authorities leads to unparalleled service. The firm also has an active insolvency practice licensed with the Romanian National Union of Insolvency Practitioners, advising both insolvent companies and creditors on all stages of workout, insolvency and bankruptcy procedure.
Contact: Mihai Nusca

Corporate/M&A: Attorneys comprising the firm’s corporate/M&A practice group have been involved in privatization/M&A transactions in the Central and East European area and Romania since 1997. They have advised well-known multinational and local clients active in industries ranging from fast moving consumer goods, construction and real estate development, manufacturing and financial services, to banking, media, internet and defense industry investors.
Contact: Teodora Motatu

Energy and sustainability: Biriş Goran lawyers are well aware of the specificity of the electricity market in Romania and the European Union and the firm’s team is able to provide an integrated approach to its clients acting in the industry, covering issues regarding taxation, competition, corporate and the organization and functioning of the companies, as well as real estate, litigation and labor related matters. Dana Dunel-Stancu heads the firm’s energy practice. A noted expert on the Romanian market for her energy and oil and gas expertise, Dana has been practicing exclusively in energy field since 2002 and has a thorough and proven command of the regulatory and practical commercial opportunities and constraints in the field.
Contact: Dana Dunel-Stancu

Labour/employment: The firm’s experience covers representation in contentious cases such as unfair dismissal, disciplinary action and breach of contract, but also advises on non-litigious matters such as negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, executive service agreements, fiscal employment optimization (including secondment arrangements), and internal regulations. Biriș Goran routinely advises on employment-related matters in the context of M&A transactions, including requirements regarding personnel and trade unions. The firm’s labour practice has expanded to include white collar crime elements. Biriș Goran has been engaged on several occasions by the foreign headquarters of multinational companies to pursue actions and protect company interests against rogue employees, as well as conduct investigations as to potential breaches of applicable anti-bribery legislation.

The firm advises a large number of clients on routine employment matters, such as reviewing and revising standard labour agreements, internal labour regulations, compliance with labour code matters and health and safety requirements, etc. Considering the new regulations addressing the equal treatment and harassment at work, Biriș Goran assists employers to adapt their internal regulation and working environment to the new legal requirements and constraints in the field.
Contact: Anca Iulia Zegrean

Data protection, IP and IT&C: Early 2018 Biriş Goran and PrivacyON, a boutique law firm specialized in legal advice on personal data protection, joined forces to provide consolidated advisory services in the field of personal data protection. The expertise of PrivacyON – currently focusing on the alignment to the new Personal Data Protection Regulation – comes to complete the portfolio of services offered by Biriş Goran with thorough GDPR knowledge.

The firm’s support includes assisting clients with the full range of legal services from gap analyses, implementation plans, training programs, drafting of internal policies, privacy notices and data protection agreements, drafting the records of processing operations, preparing data protection impact assessments, devising cookie consent mechanisms for websites, as well as assisting with the compliance of transfers of personal data outside of the European Union. With considerable experience on structuring, drafting and reviewing general corporate group and HR policies, the firm also provides support with employee privacy compliance, telephone, Internet and email use and customer data.
Contacts: Roxana Guiman and Dana Ududec