The office

The Cătălin Mihalache law office was established in 2009. Its work has settled over time on business litigation, arbitration and administrative disputes, alongside the day-to-day advice a company needs in its operations.

How we work

We start from the documents that make up the file, taking account of the procedural deadlines within which the clients’ rights must be exercised, because these determine the strategy of the case for obtaining the results sought by the client, in the shortest time and at the lowest cost. Before bringing any claim, we set out for the client, in plain terms, their legal situation as it results from the documents held or from those we could obtain through the legal steps we are to take together.

Throughout the engagement we communicate consistently on the progress of the case entrusted to us and on what comes next.

How an engagement runs

The first meeting. You set out the case and we review together the documents you hold. By the end of the meeting you know your legal position, what can be achieved and in what time, and which deadlines are already running.

Reviewing the documents. We analyse the documents, check the procedural deadlines, establish the extent of the rights under review and identify the evidence that is necessary to enforce them.

Choosing the route. We tell you whether negotiation, the preliminary procedure, arbitration or the court leads to a result sooner, with the risks of each. The decision is yours, and you take it knowing every option, not only the more favourable one.

Drafting and presenting the case. We prepare the claims and defences, handle the evidence and present the case before the court, the arbitral tribunal, before any competent body according to the legal nature of the rights in issue.

Communication throughout. After each procedural step we tell you where the case stands and what we are to do next and by when.

Specialisation within the team

Specialisation within the office is one of the criteria by which we organise our work. On files calling for technical, economic or organisational expertise of their own we work together with the team’s consultants, so that every case is examined from the perspective of all the relevant aspects.

Cases with a technical, insurance or workplace accident element benefit from the assessment of an engineer, Ion Iosif, holding international certification, with experience in technical inspection, independent verification and the investigation of the causes of failures and technical incidents.

Cases with an economic, financial, accounting or tax element benefit from the analysis of a financial and accounting specialist, Ionel Stingaciu, with experience in organising and reviewing accounting records, analysing transactions and financial documents, assessing the economic impact of operations and preparing cases that involve identifying or quantifying losses, receivables or tax liabilities.

For cases involving company law, non-governmental organisations, employment relations, human resources, health and safety at work, environmental protection, European funds, construction projects or organisational management, we work together with Mariana Mitroi, the team’s legal consultant, a law graduate with over 30 years of professional experience in communication and public relations and with complementary training in fields relevant to the activity of companies and entrepreneurs.

Mariana Mitroi contributes to the review of corporate and administrative documentation, the preparation and checking of the documents required by the Trade Register, the analysis of internal procedures and human resources records, the preparation of cases concerning associations and foundations, as well as to files involving European funds, construction projects, environmental obligations or health and safety at work. Her experience as an environmental auditor, human resources inspector, health and safety inspector, trainer and project manager, including in the field of European funds, construction and social assistance, allows an applied analysis of how legal obligations are reflected in the actual activity of an organisation.

In complex cases, her contribution is directed in particular towards identifying the relevant legal, administrative and organisational aspects, checking documents and procedures, reconstructing the facts and preparing the material needed to underpin the office’s legal strategy.

Insolvency, reorganisation and bankruptcy proceedings are handled by the insolvency practice of the same team, which allows an integrated approach where contentious, legal, economic and insolvency aspects intersect.

Through this organisation, we aim for every case to be prepared not only from the legal perspective, but also by reference to the technical, economic, organisational and operational reality in which the dispute or the legal problem arose.

What we do not do

We do not promise outcomes and we do not put forward conclusions favourable to a client before examining the facts, the documents and the available evidence. We believe that an effective legal strategy begins with a realistic assessment of the prospects and of the risks.

We do not take on cases which, following the initial analysis, we consider we cannot support seriously through legal argument and evidence. Where we find that litigation is not the right answer, or that a more effective legal alternative exists, we say so from the outset.

We prefer to give clients a candid and reasoned assessment, even where the conclusion is not the one they would have wished for, rather than build unrealistic expectations about the outcome of proceedings.