CC raids Salans for Bucharest property push

Clifford Chance has retaliated to Salans’ Warsaw raid by poaching a real estate lawyer from the latter’s Bucharest office.

Perry Zizzi, a partner with Salans in Prague and Bucharest for the past four years, has joined Badea Asociatii in association with Clifford Chance to work alongside real estate and M&A head Nadia Badea.

Last week www.thelawyer.com (24 September) reported that Salans launched a capital markets practice in Poland after raiding Clifford Chance’s Warsaw office for four senior lawyers. This prompted a rethink of Clifford Chance’s strategy regarding debt capital markets in Poland, with the magic circle firm turning to more sophisticated and structured products.

In Bucharest, office managing partner Daniel Badea said Zizzi’s addition will help bolster the firm’s real estate presence in the south-eastern Europe region.

“He will support the further development of the real estate practice in Bucharest,” said Badea. “The Bucharest office does a number of deals in the region and clients are relying on us to do more.”

Badea added that, due to client demand, the firm’s real estate practice is doing an increasing amount of work in Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, countries Zizzi will focus on.

Looking at the office as a whole, Badea said over the past three years the firm has attracted more transactions than it could service, leading to plans for further expansion.

“We are developing very aggressively but Romania is developing faster in terms of business than in producing good lawyers,” he added.