July 2025
It’s essential for each of us to feel that we are in the right place for the stage of our career we are in—a place that also offers the premises for continued growth | Interview with Ileana Nicolescu.
The courage to make changes has been most beneficial to Ileana in her career. These changes turned out to be the best professional decisions she has made.
“A significant moment was marked by the beginning of my collaboration with BACIU PARTNERS in 2021. I’d have the feeling it’d be a place where I’d be surrounded by people who would inspire me not only professionally. Nearly four years later, I’m very happy that my intuition was right, and I look to the future with great enthusiasm,” Ileana notes during a recent interview for Bizlawyer.
Although not a goal in itself, the professional and personal development Ileana has experienced has been shaped by women who exemplify authentic leadership. She has learned that success isn’t found in the comfort zone (“if it were easy, anyone could do it”), and that growth and balance begin in your personal life, which is, after all, the engine of a successful professional life and should be valued as such. “I have been—and continue to be—privileged to have had such female role models by my side, who, through their example, taught me that success requires not only competence but also empathy, integrity, and courage—and I thank them for believing in me,” adds Ileana.
“From my very first conversation with Ana-Maria Baciu, I felt that the firm’s vision aligned with my professional ideals and that I would be able to grow while also sharing my knowledge—something that makes every day an opportunity to evolve. At the same time, a major advantage of being part of BACIU PARTNERS is that we position ourselves as partners to our clients, not just providers of legal services, which makes our client interactions authentic and always focused on long-term partnerships, adding another dimension and deeper satisfaction to our work,” Ileana explains.
Together with the BACIU PARTNERS team, Ileana has had the opportunity to be involved in many projects significant to the Romanian business law market. She is involved in intellectual property mandates, with a special focus on patent litigation. She ensures, within the BACIU PARTNERS team, the representation of prominent clients from various industries, including the pharmaceutical sector. At the same time, projects related to freedom of expression are also close to her heart, and she views them as closely tied to the idea of justice, which guided her decision to pursue a law degree.
She is also enthusiastic about the firm’s projects in collaboration with ELSA Bucharest, which aim to develop initiatives with students—initiatives that create a context for honest and constructive discussions about the legal profession. “These initiatives allow us to offer a clear vision of the profession and to share the kind of insights I would have liked to know when I was a student,” Ileana explains.
Ileana admires lawyers who display confidence rooted in experience and results, without showing off or seeking to diminish others to make themselves look better by comparison. She also holds in high regard lawyers who understand that they are a key part of a complex series of events in their clients’ lives and shape their approach to offer effective remedies that are context-appropriate, swift, and—very importantly—fully understood by the clients they assist.
Ileana is of the view that in a lawyer’s day-to-day work, the most important thing is the client and their best interest. “My experience shows me that an open and empathetic approach greatly shortens the time needed to gather the information I rely on and to define the questions I need to answer. If I were in a client’s position, among other skills, I would value this kind of open approach,” Ileana clarifies.
The interview was published by Bizlawyer and is available (in Romanian) in full HERE.
Ileana Nicolescu is a Managing Associate with BACIU PARTNERS. Details about her professional career are available HERE.