December 2025

Let’s start with the essentials: Lessons of 2025?

• Asking yourself the right questions at the right time builds trust. Trust is crucial for growth, both as individuals and as a team.
• In moments of challenge, keep your integrity — even when it is not easy — because doing what is correct, ethical, and human is the only way forward.
• Nothing lasts forever, and this is not a weakness. The ability to adapt with realism and not cling to the past is what fuels real progress.

With these in mind, as we look back, the first thing we feel comfortable saying is this:
We are healthy — as a team, as a firm, and as a community built on trust.

And this is also thanks to some of the highlights of 2025. These are:

Professional Recognition

2025 brought important professional awards, rankings, and peer acknowledgements confirming that consistency and substance matter. These are:

• CEE Law Firm of the Year – Intellectual Property at Legal 500 CEE Awards Gala, being the first firm active in Romania to ever receive this distinction (details HERE)

• Best Law Firm in Gambling Law in Romania in 2025, highlighting our depth and leadership in the gaming and regulatory sector

• Finalist for Regulatory Firm of the Year at the VIXIO Global Regulatory Awards

• Regulatory Powerhouse recognition at Lawyers’ Gala 2025

• Recognition as “Gold Stars of Romanian IP” in the 2025 WTR 1000 directory

• Ranked across key IP practice areas in the IP STARS 2025 rankings — including Tier 1 and Recommended positions in trademarks and copyright, as well as in the IAM PATENT 1000 directory

• Top-ranked by Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 in our flagship areas of practice

A special note on Ana-Maria Baciu being awarded Lawyer of the Year in Romania distinction at the Legal 500 CEE AWARDS Gala (Warsaw, Poland, October 2025) – she is the first Romanian lawyer to scoop such a prestigious recognition from a highly selected list of nominees (more details HERE).

Team

We are a diverse team, across all levels of seniority and expertise, bringing together different experiences, backgrounds, and ways of thinking.

What connects us is our complementarity. Yes, it’s sometimes tricky to manage, but if it were easy, everyone would do it! We challenge, support, and learn from one another every day.

Meritocracy was awarded throughout the year (including promoting working mothers and (very) young talent), space was created for growth. Relationships that have been cultivated, including through our programmes dedicated to law students, have flourished in new joiners across the firm.

In brief, our strength—and our primary commitment—is our people. While it may sound cliché, restating it does not diminish its truth. Our diverse mix of personalities and voices enables us to approach legal challenges with creativity and relevance, serving a wide range of sectors, including:

• Intellectual Property
• Technology & Media
• Gambling Regulatory
• Consumer Protection & Advertising
• Data Privacy
• Life Sciences
• AML
• Employment
• Dispute Resolution

Knowledge Sharing – a definitive “personality” trial for us

A defining part of our year was our continued commitment to education, mentorship, and dialogue.

• Town Halls and 1-2-1 meetings across the firm – not easy to manage logistically or from a two-street expectations perspective, but definitely consistent in approach.

• Trainings and presentations on legal and client management topics—ever tried streamlining interest for collective benefit? We did and learned a lot!

• Our “Step into YOUR future – 2025” internship programme welcomed 9 students, offering them hands-on exposure, honest conversations about the profession, and a space to ask real questions.

• We continued working with students through dedicated events, with “Lawyers After Work” remaining a signature initiative.

• Our Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition reached its third edition. What started as a project has become a platform.

We believe knowledge becomes more powerful when we share it.

Connected to the Business Community

We continuously broaden our view through active membership and involvement in business and professional organisations, including AmCham Romania, Concordia, INTA, AIPPI, IAGA, and IMGL.

These communities matter to us. They keep us connected to business realities, international dialogue, and shared standards. This has a direct impact on our services and brings immediate benefits for our clients.

What We Spoke About — and Why It Matters

Throughout 2025, our work stayed focused on themes shaping today’s business reality:

• Intellectual property in a technology-driven economy

• AI, data, and regulatory accountability

• Gambling and gaming regulation in a shifting European landscape

• Consumer protection, transparency, and trust

• Compliance as strategy, not obstacle

• The human side of law: communication, clarity, responsibility

Our TOP 5 most read articles?

• Intellectual property rights in the age of social media. CJEU examines Case C-598/24

• Countdown to the New EDPB Guidelines on Pseudonymisation!

• Digital Services Act and the protection of minors: key recommendations from the European Commission and a new age-verification mechanism

• New EU Regulation Imposes Stricter Rules on Packaging Design and Waste Management.

• Fintech Law: A general introduction to fintech law in Romania

These are not trends for us — they are ongoing conversations we actively contribute to through writing, speaking, and daily client work. For more about these, please visit our dedicated page, NEWS & INSIGHTS.

So, what lies ahead?

We are definitely curious to learn. Yes, there is a bit of healthy heart-and-mind-checking involved — and that’s a good thing, because if 2025 taught us anything, it’s to stay curious and grounded at the same time and accept that change is constant. We do have dreams — but we believe in the ones that can actually come true, through work, ownership and commitment,

mentioned Ana-Maria Baciu.

Looking Forward

In 2026, our focus will remain on championing adaptability and genuine client service (internal and external) by encouraging professional curiosity, courtesy, and commitment.

We look forward to writing the next chapter with the same belief that real success comes from re-imagining how things can be better.

And that, for us, is the most solid ground to step into 2026.