Andrei Albulescu

Partner

As a named partner at Stratulat Albulescu, Andrei has been with the firm almost from the very beginning and has aspired to manage and expand it into the vibrant organisation that it is today. His talents and expertise as a seasoned lawyer, together with his skills as a hands-on and approachable leader and manager of the firm’s day to day affairs, provides not only extra value to the firm but also practical insight that is easily transferable to many issues our clients require assistance with.

Andrei has almost 17 years of experience as a business lawyer. His outstanding and well-developed interpersonal skills, together with his ability to build positive relationships with clients, team members, partners and employees, complement his excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

In the field of employment law, Andrei routinely advises on some of the most important cases in Romania. He has significant experience in negotiating, concluding and enforcing collective labour agreements, drafting internal rules and policies and implementing legal procedures to terminate labour agreements. He has also orchestrated re-organisations, complex business transfers and collective dismissals, co-ordinated due diligence exercises and assisted on disciplinary procedures. In short, he has been involved in, and advised on, almost every type of employment issue one might expect to encounter in Romania and the EU.  Andrei’s extensive experience is why many of our clients involve and consult him on strategic decisions to achieve best-case outcomes.

Andrei also has invaluable and substantial experience dealing with public procurement agreements. He has advised clients on corporate governance practices and joint venture agreements and has represented clients during the preparation, negotiation and implementation of public procurement contracts. Some of his most important work has involved infrastructure and public utility projects.

Andrei has experience in corporate and commercial issues, advising clients on complex mergers, acquisitions and privatisation projects and has guided the restructuring and re-organisation of many corporate and commercial relationships. He has advised businesses at all stages, including assisting by managing various contractual relationships from vendors and customers to sub-contractors, licensees, franchisees and others.

The Legal 500 included Andrei amongst the recommended employment lawyers in Romania describing him as very responsive, hands-on and business oriented, who truly embodies the qualities which are essential for a good (international) business lawyer (2020).

According to Legal 500 – 2021 edition, clients praise him for being a fantastic communicator and also for his involvement in the projects. “He always brings the added value expected from such an experienced professional. [Andrei is] the ideal lawyer to work with when dealing with sophisticated and sensitive employment matters.

Andrei is an active member of the European Employment Lawyers Association, AIJA and also represents our company as an exclusive member for Romania of the Global Leaders Employment Forum.

LANGUAGES

Romanian – English – French

EDUCATION

2004 – Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)

Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE:

• Advised Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization of Romania on the merger between Orange Romania and Orange Romania Communications (previously Telekom Romania Communications).
• Advised the logistics company ESP Solutions on the Romanian elements related to the acquisition of Autransa Group.
• Advised Resource Partners on the sale of World Class, the undisputed leader of the fitness industry in Romania, to African Industries Group.
• Advised one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies on all aspects related to a labour dispute and connected litigation initiated by an employee, including advising the client in relation to the reinstatement
  and reinsertion of the employee in the company.
• Advised the Romanian subsidiary of a large Turkish manufacturer, retailer and international direct sales company in the segment of beauty, personal care, home care and wellness products, on various labour aspects.
• Advised a leading Romanian company with over 20 years’ experience on the private medical services market in Romania and one of the first three providers of private medical services in Romania in several sensitive employment disputes concerning dismissal decisions.
• Continued assistance to World Class Romania on various employment issues.
• Advised PitechPlus on the appointment of its initial founder, Bogdan Herea-Buzatu, as CEO and Executive Director of the company in the context of the acquisition of the majority stake of the company by Webhelp SAS.
• Advised La Fantana SRL on day-to-day legal matters, in relation to virtually all business activities of La Fantana which cover employment and health & safety matters.
• Advised Pionix Marketing Solutions SRL on the furlough measures possible to be adopted during COVID-19, force majeure in case of COVID-19 crisis in the employment relations, the update and optimisation of the services agreements concluded with the independent contractors especially from intellectual property rights perspective, update and optimisation of the individual employment agreements with the relevant intellectual property rights assignment, latest amendments of the employment regulations, labour safety and health related duties and restrictive covenants. 
• Advised Merck on specific employment matters, such as updating, drafting and implementation of the bilingual employees’ handbook. 
• Advised Flame Romania SRL, the local subsidiary of a JacTravel, a global B2B distributor of handpicked hotels from around the world about a multitude of employment-related issues.
• Advised Teads on the delegation of authority policy and the delegation of authority applicable within Teads group of companies and on the implementation of the said delegations at the level of in order to be binding upon its corporate bodies and management.
• Advised the Romanian subsidiary of a global market research and consulting firm on various employment issues, ranging from drafting the collective bargaining agreement and assisting the company throughout the negotiations, preparing addenda on restrictive covenants for the top management, drafting internal proceedings regarding irregular working schedules, payment of overtime and of days worked during the night, weekend and/or legal holidays; consultancy regarding time keeping solutions that reflect the arrival and departure hours for the employees.
• Advised the leading Romanian water-solution and coffee suppliers for office consumption, HoReCa in front of the Territorial Labour Inspectorate with regards to an incident occurred within the premises of the company investigated as a potential work accident.
• Advised a national local chain hospitality resort on various employment aspects: reviewed and completed the template of job descriptions used by the company, provided advice about alignment of the employee handbook with the employment regulations, monitoring employees with view of granting performance-related bonuses, implementing housing for foreign work force (India, Nepal) and methods for recovering costs with immigration formalities in respect thereto in case of termination of employment prior to the period for which they were recruited.
• Advised a luxury footwear manufacturer having more than 500 employees employed in the production facility in relation to the compliance core matters to be achieved in the health and safety of the employees and the duties of the company in such respect which may be delegated to its employees.
• Advised the Romanian subsidiary of a leading global IT & E-commerce services supplier about redundancy of its employees working in customer support field due to reorganisation of activity.
• Advised a global leader in Engineering and R&D services in connection with a potential transfer of approximately 450 employees from a local company, including with respect to closing down of the activity of the client after the transfer, outsourcing of the services provided and rights of the transferred employees in case of mutual termination of their employment contracts.
• Advised the Romanian subsidiary of a Belgian brewery, a family-run company with a brewing tradition for over 255 years, in connection with the appointment and engagement of the new Managing Director of the Romanian subsidiary.
• Advised a well-known European medicine distribution company about possible scenarios to be considered in respect to the restructure of the activity performed by the Group in Romania, and implementing the process thereof.
• Advised the subsidiary in Romania of a wellknown internationally company science-led biopharmaceutical business involved in innovative medicines, with over 66,000 employees worldwide, in connection with a middle-management conflictual employee, reinstated by the company upon the annulment by the court of law of the dismissal decision.
• Advised a furniture manufacturing company with respect to the closing the activities carried out in Romania by its subsidiary operating a finishing furniture factory hiring around 60 employees.
• Advised a local subsidiary of a Danish IT outsourcing company throughout the restructuring of the company and the implementation of a new organizational chart better suited for the current status of the business, as well as negotiating and drafting severance agreements with top executives of the company.