Professor Gheorghe Piperea, PhD

I am a lawyer at the Bucharest Bar since 1996 and a founding partner of Piperea & Asociații. My first period of practical activity in the legal field was that of a judge at the Bucharest District Court 1, in the period 1994-1996.

My professional experience is based on a solid theoretical training: I attended the bachelor’s and master’s courses (Business Law) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest (1994 and 1995 respectively), the courses of the National Institute of Magistracy (1995), the courses of the College French-Romanian law (1995) and the short-term courses of the Paris School of Lawyers (October – December 1999), and since 2005 I have a doctorate in law from the University of Bucharest and the Sorbonne I – Pantheon University in Paris, my thesis doctorate ” The European Community Acquis in the field of commercial companies and the capital market “, being scored with the highest qualification by the two universities.

My involvement in the Romanian legal system is a complex one: on the one hand , through practical activity, as a lawyer and insolvency practitioner, and by participating in the drafting of some bills (especially in the field of commercial companies, insolvency and consumer protection), and, on the other hand , through the publication of numerous specialized articles and books and through didactic activity.

From a civic perspective, I have contributed with numerous publicity articles and media appearances, as well as with the work of non-governmental organizations that I lead, to the popularization of law and to educating the public in the spirit of rights and freedoms and the rule of law.

I am a university professor at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest – Department of Private Law – owner of the courses Romanian Commercial Law and Consumer Protection (license) and Insolvency Procedures (master’s in Business Law). I am also a doctoral supervisor in the field of commercial law, as well as author or co-author of some reference works in Romanian legal and judicial doctrine, publishing several courses, commentaries, monographs and specialized articles in the fields in which I mainly carry out my activity professional, such as: corporate law, capital markets, insolvency, transport law, civil law and consumer protection.

The continuous struggle for truth and justice, as well as the human solidarity instilled by my parents, led me to contribute pro bono considerably to the evolution and improvement of the Romanian legal system by drafting a large number of draft normative acts regarding businesses: commercial companies, enterprises individual and family, abusive clauses in the contracts of professionals with private individuals, preventive arrangement, insolvency, personal bankruptcy, organization of the profession of insolvency practitioner and mediation.

With a professional experience of over 28 years in the legal field, I have generated or contributed to the creation of currents of legal and civic thought and models of legal and jurisprudential practice, the innovations and solutions thought out and applied together with my team at Piperea & Associations being an engine of the development of several fields of legal activity in Romania, at least in the last 15 years.

Together with the team built within Piperea & Asociații, we became the creators of the concept of class action type collective process in Romania, being the ones who put this concept to work, with remarkable results in terms of jurisprudence and standard contracts or legislation . Following collective lawsuits regarding VAT on copyright income, those relating to special pensions of military and airmen, those relating to pregnancy or child care allowances and, above all, following collective consumer lawsuits allies against merchants who abused their economic power, judicial precedents were created, laws and government regulations were changed, contracts – the type used by professionals – were substantially changed and attitudes and prejudices towards of these sociological phenomena. In areas such as fixed speed cameras, first registration tax, wrecking, abusive car removals, bank loans, utility bills, regulations and practices in the field have fundamentally changed as a result of the results obtained by the team built within Piperea & Asociații , who made all these results public, pro bono , so that other legal practitioners could take them up and make use of them.

In fact, all these currents and innovations have been supported for over 13 years by the Business Law Conferences, organized by the Piperea & Asociații team and the Faculty of Law from Bucharest, according to the concept and with my direct and personal involvement. These conferences have turned, over time, into an annual event of reference in the field of business law, having all the prerequisites for consolidation as such in the coming years.

In addition to the practical activities and the many academic projects in which I am involved, I founded the Parakletos Association, an association for consumer protection that aims to become a national counseling center, a laboratory of consumer collective lawsuits, but also a source of regulations and honest practices, recommended for professionals who might be tempted to abuse their economic power.

As a coordinator and together with part of my team from Piperea si Asociații, I am a co-author of the works ” Insolvency Code. Notes. Correlations. Explanations “, published by CH Beck Publishing House in 2017, ” The New Code of Civil Procedure. Notes. Correlations. Explanations. “, published by CH Beck Publishing House in 2012, but also of the work ” Civil Procedure Code. Comments and explanations “, published by CH Beck Publishing House in 2019 and awarded with the “Traian Ionașcu” prize awarded by the Romanian Journal of Private Law in collaboration with the National Union of Bailiffs from Romania for the best book of the year 2019 on private law topics .

The man I am today is primarily due to my parents and family, and then to all the personal and professional experiences that have turned into challenges, involved the exploration of new ideas and solutions and, finally, have been a driving force in my development.

The treatises, university courses, monographs that I have written or contributed to are:

” Obligations and liability of administrators of commercial companies “, published by All Beck publishing house, Bucharest, 1998;

” Commercial companies, capital market, community acquis “, published by All Beck publishing house, Bucharest, 2005;

“Transport law” , course published by All Beck publishing house, Bucharest, 2003, 2005

” Law of Commercial Companies. Commentary on articles “, published in 5 editions by CH Beck publishing house, Bucharest, 2001, 2002, 2006 (co-authored with St. Carpenaru, C. Predoiu, S. David), 2009, 2017 (co-authored with St. Carpenaru, S. David);

” Insolvency: the law, the rules, the reality” , Ed. Wolters Kluwer, Bucharest, 2008;

” Commercial Law “, vol. I, 2008, vol. II, 2009, CHBeck Publishing House;

” The new Civil Code. Notes. Correlations. Explanations “, CHBeck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2011;

” Introduction to the law of professional contracts “, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2011;

” The New Civil Code, Commentary on Articles “, coord. Fl. A Baias, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012;

“The New Civil Code, Commentary on Articles “, coord. Fl. A Baias, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2014;

” Commercial law. The Enterprise “, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012;

” The new Code of Civil Procedure. Notes. Correlations. Explanations “, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012;

” The New Civil Code, Commentary on Articles “, Hamangiu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012;

” The Insolvency Code. Notes. Correlations. Explanations “, Hamangiu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2017;

” Consumer Protection in Commercial Contracts “, CHBeck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2018;

” Commercial contracts and obligations “, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2019;

” Commercial law. General theory, enterprise and insolvency “, CH Beck Publishing House, Bucharest, 2020.

Published studies, articles, notes (examples) :

Bankruptcy in private international law, in Commercial Law Review no. 1/1996 and no. 5/1996

In connection with the applicability of the judicial reorganization and liquidation procedure in some special situations, in Commercial Law Review no. 7-8/1996

The law applicable to state commercial companies, in Juridical no. 3-7, no. 9/2000

The legal nature of the one-person commercial company, in the Journal of commercial law no. 4/2000

The company created in fact, in Legal no. 2/2000

About the amendments to the bankruptcy law, in Commercial Law Review no. 9/2000

Note to the decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice no. 1897/2000 and no. 3208/2000, in the Romanian Pandects no. 4/2001

About the simplification of the procedure for registration and authorization of the operation of Commercial companies, in Romanian Pandectele no. 1/2002

Explanations and criticism of the new bankruptcy legislation, in the Romanian Pandects no. 5/2002

The public interest and the privileges of the tax office, in the Romanian Journal of business law no. 6/2003, as well as in the Economic Tribune of August 2003

Investor protection in Romanian securities legislation, in the Romanian Journal of Business Law no. 9/2003

Corporate Governance, in Romanian Pandects no. 2/2004; an abbreviated version of this article was also published in the Annales of the University of Bucharest, in 2004;

The legal circulation of securities, in the Judicial Courier no. 5/2004

Cross-border insolvency, in the Romanian Business Law Review no. 5/2006

Bankruptcy, maritime law and arbitration. Commentary on Decision no. 3556/2006 of the ÎCCJ, Commercial Section, in the Romanian Business Law Review no. 3/2008, in collaboration with Cristina Zamșa

The legal regime of fiscal transparency, in Fiscal Curierul no. 2/2007

Insolvency procedure as a civil process (Romanian Journal of Business Law), part IIIa, IVa, Va

Management control through the general assembly and through the individual actions of the Shareholders, in the Judicial Courier no. 10/2007

Over-indebtedness of individuals and bankruptcy, in Supplement I/2007 of the Romanian Pandectele Magazine, November 2007, at the Banking Law Conference, organized by the West University of Timișoara and the Association of Legal Advisors from the Banking Financial System.

About public persons and their moral damages, in the Judicial Courier no. 1/2008

Consumer protection in commercial contracts, in the Romanian Journal of Business Law No. 4/2008

Insolvency prevention models and procedures, in the business law journal supplement No. II/2008

Insolvency of public institutions. Consequences regarding the elections, in the Judicial Courier no. 5/2008

About the court’s protection for ordinary individuals in insolvency, in the Judicial Courier no. 2/2009

Insolvency of natural persons. A pending regulation, in Fiscal Courier no. 12/2009

Procedures for safeguarding companies in difficulty, Romanian Journal of Business Law no. 1/2010

IXID, in the Judicial Courier no. 7/2015

Some reflections and brief comments on the Consumer Insolvency Law, Romanian Business Journal no. 10 of 2015

Reverse charge with VAT. VAT facilities for sale in the “Prima Casă” program. “Deregistration” as a VAT payer (co-author), in the Judicial Courier no. 8/2016

Law to be feared: the law of payment, in the Judicial Courier no. 4/2016

The absolute nullity of an AGM decision can be invoked by associations that abstained or that voted for the adoption of the decision*, in the Romanian Journal of Business Law no. 2 of 2016

The credit facility contract and the debit card, sources of chaos in business, in the Romanian Journal of Private Law no. 2 of 2017

The sacrificial, collective, bankruptcy and necessary characters in the insolvency procedure, in the Judicial Courier no. 7/2017