Seven law firms will be able to represent the Romanian state at the Washington International Court of Arbitration of the World Bank. The consortium formed by the Tuca&Asociates law firm and White&Case have been assigned as the state attorneys in the litigation with EDF, and NNKDP and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will represent Romania in the lawsuit against the Micula brothers.

After the auction organized by the Ministry of Public Finances, which was considered ambiguous by some people, the Romanian state has a list of seven consortia and law firms which could represent Romania at the International Centre for the Settlement of the Investment Related Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank. The lawyers will defend Romania’s economical interests as well as its image. This is a few million dollars stake for the state as well as for the law firms.

THE COURT. A group of seven firms was created this way, a group of seven valid consortia that will represent the state at the Arbitration Court. Each of the seven firms will be named for each case by the MPF afterwards without any other auction. The choosing of the firms is very ambiguous because the regulations regarding this matter as well as the order of Minister of Finances, Sebastian Vladescu, are very ambiguous. "The selection of the seven law firms has been made indeed by the MPF (after an ambiguous and totally "opaque" auction), but I hope that the involved public institutions will prove to be correct in choosing the commissioned lawyers that will defend the country’s interest in Washington", Gheroghe Musat, associate lawyer at Musat&Asssociates, stated. At present, according to the ICSID webpage, Romania is involved in four trials at the International Arbitration Court. One of them is the continuation of the Noble Ventures trials, for which the MPF is yet to choose the attorneys. In exchange, the consortiu