Eversheds nets Romanian firm with Russia on radar

3 October 2011 | By James Swift

Lina & Guia is a full-service firm with an office in Bucharest. From 1 ­October the firm, which advises Danone, Volvo and RBS, will be known as Eversheds Lina & Guia. It will not integrate fully into Eversheds’ LLP, instead becoming part of the Eversheds International network.

“Romania’s an important geography,” said Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes. “It’s shown reasonable growth and we anticipate further growth on the infrastructure and projects side. We’ve worked with the firm for a number of years and are confident they’ll deliver high-quality services.”

Eversheds used to have a relationship with Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii in Romania.

News of the tie-up comes as The Lawyer can reveal that Eversheds has had a Russian LLP incorporated since 2009 in preparation for a move into the jurisdiction. The Russian partnership did not trade in the past financial year, but incurred set-up costs of £4,464. The firm used to have office space in Moscow, but recently abandoned it.

“Russia’s an important market and clients are telling us they want to do business there,” said managing partner Lee Ranson, who joined Prime Minister David Cameron on a visit to Russia in September.

“We’ve been thinking about [moving into Russia] for some time and if we ­create our own entity there then there are processes we have to go through.

”In 2009 we took the decision to set up an LLP. We haven’t used it yet, but we’re keeping our options open.”

Following the tie-up with Lina & Guia Eversheds will have 46 offices around the world.