GDR 100 2021

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații

Professional notice

Practice profile

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații is home to Romania’s largest team of data protection and privacy lawyers and offers an exhaustive menu of services to domestic and international companies in telecoms, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, e-commerce, energy and other key sectors. In ticking all the boxes, the firm is well-placed to handle large, complex and important data projects – something client referees particularly recommend it for. Further helpful in this regard is international expertise and a collaborative approach – Țuca Zbârcea’s data experts have no problem slotting into cross-border legal teams whose members come from peer firms around the world. Further worth noting are the firm’s extra-curricular activities in this area of practice, which go beyond just penning articles; the firm is a founding member of the PrivacyRules worldwide alliance and hosts many events in partnership with leading companies such as Oracle Romania.

Leading individuals

Stars in the firm’s constellation include Ciprian Timofte, Ciprian Dragomir, Horia Ispas and Ioana Hrisafi. Timofte, who earned a well-deserved promotion to partner in January 2020, has a passion for data protection and is an innovative thinker in the practice. Dragomir is the firm’s top IP mind but has a deft touch on data matters particularly of a transactional nature. Ispas hails from a corporate and commercial background and has a flair for optimising data strategies. Contentious IP and data work is the preserve of Hrisafi.

Work highlights

The team represents Vodafone extensively and has recently provided full due diligence support in connection with its acquisition of Liberty Global’s operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. As part of this deal, Vodafone absorbed UPC Romania, which necessitated complex legal analysis around extensive data issues. The group has also been retained by the company to advise on data protection impact assessments.

Accord Healthcare is another major client and one for which the group plays an important day-to-day data privacy and protection advisory role; services rendered by Horia Ispas and Ciprian Timofte include reviewing internal policies and notices, overseeing GDPR compliance, assisting on data processing agreements, and more.

In litigation, Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații successfully represented ING Bank in a case filed by the Assistance Service for Human Rights concerning an alleged failure by the bank to erase a natural person from a credit risk database. In a consequential decision for the bank, which would otherwise have been left open to potential class actions, the plaintiff’s claim was rejected by the Bucharest Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal.

Client feedback

The firm’s name elicits a vigorous response from market sources: “Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații has a remarkably good team of data privacy lawyers who respond quickly, meet tight deadlines and think ahead to potential problems and solutions. The team really understands the telecommunications industry and gives practical advice that is tailored to its clients.”

“The group is highly creative and strikes the right balance in terms of giving legal and business advice. Its lawyers are open minded, flexible and good active listeners who know how to make you feel comfortable. Their internal and external communication is very effective, and their advice is consistently accurate and reliable.”

Several individuals come in for high praise, too: “Ciprian Timofte is an excellent team player and a determined, enthusiastic and innovative lawyer.” “Bogdan Halcu is commercial and creative, as well as good at contextualising data privacy issues in their wider context.” “Sergiu Cretu has an analytical mind and has amassed considerable data privacy and IP experience. He is proactive and straightforward.” “Ciprian Dragomir has a strong background in data privacy and intellectual property. He delegates effectively and has built up an experienced team around him.”

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații is a full-service independent law firm, being currently perceived as one of the largest and best-established in the Romanian legal market. To date, it employs more than 185 cross-disciplinary teams of lawyers, insolvency practitioners, tax consultants, IP counsellors, economists and staff members. It also operates a secondary law office in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and has a “best-friend” agreement with a leading law firm in the Republic of Moldova. In addition, thanks to the firm’s dedicated Foreign Desks, the team is able to provide the full range of services to Chinese investors seeking to gain a foothold or expand their existing operations in Romania. Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații advises local and international companies, prominent financial institutions, public authorities and governmental institutions on virtually all types of legal, tax and similar matters affecting their operations locally.

Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociații has an all-embracing experience in providing legal advice in the area of Data privacy/data protection to top companies in Romania and/or abroad, active in various commercial sectors, such as: telecom, financial services (banking, insurance, pensions, etc.), healthcare, pharmacy, e-commerce, IT, energy, food supply, etc.

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații has a dedicated team totalling 12 lawyers who are dealing almost exclusively with Data privacy/data protection issues. The firm’s Head of Data privacy/data protection is Ciprian Timofte, Partner, with other Partners such as Ciprian Dragomir, Horia Ispas also deploying a significant expertise in this area.

The legal assistance provided covers all aspects of data privacy, from legal assistance before the local regulatory authority (The National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing – ANSPDCP) in relation to various issues (such as notification of personal data breaches, consultation for high risk data protection impact assessments, consultation on sensitive legitimate interest assessments, etc.) to complex legal assistance in the field of data privacy/ GDPR, such as: full GDPR implementation; carrying out data privacy impact assessments (DPIAs) and legitimate interests assessments (LIAs); employee monitoring, geolocation, call history; cookies; cloud computing and cybersecurity solutions; auditing of data processors; personal data sharing and international transfers of data; negotiation of relevant terms of data processing agreements (DPAs); industry codes of conducts; GDPR/ data privacy trainings; handling of data subjects’ complaints, etc. In addition, the group is handling contentious related work pertaining to data privacy and data protection, as well as data-focused disputes and appeals against regulatory actions. In so doing, our lawyers are cooperating with the firm’s Dispute Resolution team. Furthermore, they are also working closely with the firm’s lawyers specializing in Mergers & Acquisitions and Intellectual Property for all data privacy/data protection issues arising from private client/corporate transactions, trade secrets, database rights and other IP litigation used to preserve proprietary information etc.

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații is a founding member of the PrivacyRules alliance – the only worldwide alliance with a holistic tech & legal approach to privacy matters.

Contact details:

Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii
4-8 Nicolae Titulescu Ave., America House, West Wing, 8th Floor
Sector 1, 011141
Bucharest, Romania
Phone: +40 21 204 88 90
Fax: +40 21 204 88 99
E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.tuca.ro

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