Suciu Popa Attorneys

The Bucharest firm is a popular choice for FIDIC disputes over infrastructure projects in the region

This full-service firm launched in Bucharest in 2016 when Luminita Popa and Miruna Suciu, two long-standing partners at Romanian firm Mușat & Asociații, broke away to set up their own shop, bringing a team with them.

Popa had been instrumental in developing the international arbitration practice at Mușat over more than a decade. She is a member of the ICC Court and on the arbitrator list of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

She leads the arbitration team, which includes recently promoted partners Daciana Popa and Radu Chiran.

Who uses it?

Arbitration clients have included Enel, SABMiller, Engie, Hochtief,  Strabag, the Carlyle Group and French engineering group Colas. The firm regularly acts for Western clients in the energy, construction and infrastructure sectors.

Other clients include Romania’s state-owned utility Hidroelectrica; independent energy company Black Sea Oil & Gas; and SIF Transilvania, one of the country’s largest investment funds.

Kazakhstan’s national gas company KazMunayGas and Bulgarian gas supplier Bulgargaz EAD have used the firm.

Track record

Popa helped Enel defeat a US$1.2 billion ICC claim by the Romanian government in 2016 over alleged breaches of a privatisation agreement.

There was another win for Enel three years later when the firm defeated claims of more than €130 million in an ICC case arising from the privatisation of Romania’s largest electricity distributor and supplier. Clifford Chance was co-counsel to Enel in the case.

It has also won €8.5 million for clients Colas Rail and ISAF against the Romanian National Railway Company over a project to rehabilitate a portion of the country’s most important railway line.

It has also achieved good results for Colas and Austria’s Strabag in FIDIC disputes over road infrastructure projects in Romania. 

Recent events

The firm defended a subsidiary of KazMunayGaz in an ICC claim brought by Jersey oil and gas company Serinus Energy over the Satu Mare onshore exploration block in Romania. A tribunal affirmed in early 2023 that the KMG subsidiary was in default under a joint operating agreement and that its 40% interest in the concession should pass to Serinus.

Suciu Popa is representing a subsidiary of Greek engineering group Techniki Olympiaki in a Romanian arbitration case arising out of a FIDIC contract for rehabilitation of a major national road in Romania.

Roxana Fercala left the partnership to set up her own practice in 2022.

Client comment

The head of legal and corporate affairs at Enel’s Romanian arm, Alina Dumitrascu, is full of praise for Suciu Popa. “The firm’s performance was outstanding and we were thrilled by the final result,” she says.

Dumitrascu says the team offers “first class international arbitration services combined with the best understanding of local laws and practices”, as well as “a deep knowledge of the energy sector”. “This mix of capabilities is unmatched in the Romanian market,” she adds.