DLA PIPER

The new Bucharest office will bolster DLA Piper's capabilities in CEE

Bucharest - DLA Piper is pleased to announce its plans to open an office in Romania. The new office, which is expected to open in early November, will be established with a strong team under the leadership of corporate lawyer Marian Dinu.

DLA Piper already has a strong presence across Central and Eastern Europe with nine offices in total across the region. The largest practices are in Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw. The new office in Bucharest is an important part of DLA Piper's strategic plans for South Eastern Europe and also highlights its continued commitment to investing in the major business centres across the region.

Led by Marian, the Bucharest office will initially focus on corporate, real estate and finance and projects. Marian, a corporate lawyer with over 12 years' experience, was formerly head of corporate M&A for the Bucharest office of Linklaters and General Counsel for Petrom, Romania's largest company and one of the region's leading oil and gas groups, where he managed a legal team comprising more than 100 lawyers.

Andrew Darwin, Managing Director for Europe at DLA Piper, said: "The opening of the Bucharest office is an important step in the development of our capabilities across the CEE. We see tremendous growth across the entire region and in order to respond to the opportunities in Bucharest we need to have a physical presence there. When our office in Bucharest is established in November we will have a presence in all the major business centers across the CEE."

Marian will be joined by more than 10 lawyers with skills in the areas of corporate, real estate and finance. The team is expected to grow considerably over the next two years.

"We have been serving clients across the CEE region with a very strong team for many years and we will now enhance that team with an office in Romania, the second largest economy in the region," said Ivo Deskovic, Regional Managing Partner for the CEE at DLA Piper. Ivo added: "Gaining a local foothold will improve our ability to help existing clients and represent other multinationals,

banks, domestic companies and government institutions on a range of matters. I am delighted to welcome Marian and the rest of the team to DLA Piper.

"We have recruited a talented team comprising locally and internationally trained lawyers and I am confident that they will make a considerable contribution to the development of our reputation in the market and our work in the surrounding region. I look forward to working with Marian and the rest of the team over the coming months to strengthen our practice."

Marian Dinu Marian started his career as a trainee at Romanian law firm Sulica & Partners before leaving to study at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, where he graduated with a Masters of Law. Following this Marian joined the London office of Linklaters, where he worked for two years in the capital markets practice. In 2001 Marian relocated to Linklaters Bucharest office, where he worked for four years before leaving to join Petrom, having previously acted on the privatisation of the company, as General Counsel. Marian rejoined Linklaters to head the corporate practice in Bucharest in 2007.

Marian is a member of the New York State Bar and the Romanian Bar Association.

For further information:

Christian Dingler | Projektmanager, ergo Kommunikation, Tel.: +49 (0)221 912887-86 oder

Email: christian.dingler@ergo-komm.de

Christina Krings, Business Development Manager, DLA Piper, Tel.: +49 (0)221 277 277 – 830 oder Email: christina.krings@dlapiper.com

Notes to editors:

1.

DLA Piper ist die weltweit größte Anwaltskanzlei. Mit über 3.700 Anwälten an 64 Standorten in 25 Ländern in Europa, Asien, dem Nahen Osten und den USA bietet DLA Piper ein umfassendes Rechtsberatungsangebot.

2.

In Deutschland ist DLA Piper an vier Standorten - Köln, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main und München - mit rund 120 Anwälten, darunter 35 Partnern, vertreten und wird vom deutschen Managing Partner Dr. Ulrich Jüngst geführt.

3.

Für weitere Information zu DLA Piper besuchen Sie unsere Web-Seite www.dlapiper.com.