Interview with: Cristina Filip, Managing partner

Managing partner Cristina Filip explains how the firm is adapting to clients’ changing needs

 

1) What do you see as the main points that differentiate Filip & Company from your competitors?

We are focused on building long-lasting relationships with our clients, based on reliability, trust and expertise. We are committed to delivering result-oriented services, which are carefully tailored to the client’s objective in relation to each relevant project. We organize our teams and expertise around our clients’ needs in order to provide integrated solutions and facilitate collaboration and communication with the client. Moreover, we are a full-service law firm, meaning that we cover all legal areas of importance for businesses concerned with Romania. We combine exceptional legal expertise with deep industry knowledge and creative thinking, to help clients achieve their commercial goals.

Another strength that we have is the fact that all our senior partners have been active on the Romanian market for more than 20 years, working on complex transactions and files. We know the market, its evolution and its local conditions as well as the expectations of both domestic and multinational investors. Over the years, we have established a very strong international professional network. We know reliable colleagues and firms in every European country and all other significant economic areas in the world. Our clients can rely on our network contacts. Our clients tell us that working with Filip & Company is surprisingly straightforward and our approach to client relationships is different and refreshing.

 

2) Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

In the next 12 months we expect to have the largest growth in Corporate and M&A and Commercial and Dispute Resolution practices.

This trend will continue the growth we experienced in the previous years, although we are cautious about the risks and uncertainties associated with the currently ongoing conflicts. However, Romania is a relevant sizeable market in the EU and a NATO member and continues to be perceived positively in terms of economic environment, growth opportunities and investor confidence.

 

3) What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

We keep adapting to changes in the market – therefore, there is not one change we have experienced, but a series of regular improvements and calibrations to our services addressing the changing needs of our clients. One particular area of continuous investment and development is related to piloting and adopting relevant new technologies.  We expect these technologies to be able to drive productivity gains that will benefit our clients. However, we are mindful of the necessary guardrails in relation to the use of new technology as we need to control the ecosystem where confidential information is held, analysed and processed.

 

4) Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Technology has effectively improved and rendered more efficient the way we interact with our clients and the level of responsiveness in our services. We expect to much expand the uses of technology in relation to our practice of law. We have also used technology to increase our presence in the market – the creation and distribution of digital content promotes our lawyers expertise to a larger audience and keep our clients informed and engaged.

 

5) Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

Our team assisted a client to amend and restructure its contractual framework with a view to integrate recent relevant case law in various fields of law, from labour to contract, corporate, anti-trust and fiscal law. This contractual overhaul translated into a reduction in the number of breaches and contentious situations with counterparties in the usual course of business and the identification of more areas where the client could exercise more flexibility to negotiate better and secured commercial terms.

 

6) Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

We see our firm involved in an ever-larger number of long-term relationships with our clients and developing more efficient processes for organizing, channelling, and sharing both professional know how and industry knowledge and client – specific knowledge in order to continue to generate up to date valuable services to our clients.