Schoenherr promotes Sebastian Gutiu (office managing partner Romania) and Matei Florea (partner) to new firm-wide heads for real estate, and banking, finance & capital markets, respectively.

"I'm glad that our new firm-wide heads for banking, finance & capital markets as well as real estate will be leading the practice groups from the growing market, Romania. This further strengthens our standing as CEE law firm." Both Matei and Sebastian are highly experienced and well-respected lawyers in their fields. I'm positive that they will continue to build on our expertise in these areas," said Michael Lagler, Schoenherr's managing partner.

Sebastian Gutiu started at Schoenherr in 2001. For the past ten years he has been managing partner of Schoenherr Bucharest. Sebastian specialises in real estate law as well as dispute resolution. He has been the main driver behind the firm's real estate practice in Romania and is recognised as an eminent practitioner in this field by independent research organisations such as Chambers.

"This appointment is recognition of our competence centres in the CEE/SEE region. Schoenherr has a strong real estate practice in the jurisdictions where it operates, and we plan to continue enhancing the firm's experience in this field. Our main goal remains to deliver excellent services to our real estate clients," said Sebastian Gutiu.

Matei Florea has been with Schoenherr since 1999. He is a partner with the firm and heads the banking & finance and projects/ PPP/ concessions/ public procurement practice groups in Romania. Matei is recognised as a tier one banking & finance lawyer in Romania. His banking & finance activities focus on bank m&a deals, loan portfolio transactions, bank regulatory, debt restructuring projects, project finance and real estate lending.  

"I am excited and honoured by this new project. Our banking & finance practice has been growing consistently in all our offices in the CEE region. We have many years of experience in dealing with high-profile and complex transactions. I'm convinced that continuing to focus on our clients' needs and our team is the key to success," said Matei Florea.