Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Coordinator, on the network's achievements in 2023 and its plans for 2024: “The objective has stayed the same: to create a tool that facilitates professional collaboration between Lawyers and thus boost the professional capacities of all Members”

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: At the beginning of the year we spoke about the development and objectives of the network. You listed then two major objectives of WOLEP. The first was to attract clients by popularizing the legal expertise of the WOLEP Members, while at the same time validating the professionalism of WOLEP lawyers and increasing their professional prestige, and the second was to expand the WOLEP Webinars which have been very successful among our Members. At the end of 2023, do you tick off these goals as achieved?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: Thank you for the opportunity to answer your questions. I think it is a good habit to hold such discussions at the beginning and at the end of the year, because in this way we manage to set some goals that are undoubtedly important for the development of the network.

I think we can tick those two objectives as being met, but I would also refer to the process that the WOLEP network has gone through, a process that finally led to the achievement of the objectives mentioned. It is said that when you start a new activity, you can never foresee all the challenges you will encounter. That's pretty much how it was with WOLEP in 2023. We set ourselves two major goals, but along the way, in order to achieve these goals, the challenges were most unexpected. Without exaggerating the degree of difficulty of the challenges we had to overcome, I would like to mention anecdotally that we were somewhat surprised that many WOLEP lawyers, when they learned about the fact that we were organizing such Webinars, did not believe that they could be achieved nor that, in the end, the gain from attending them would be so valuable.

From this perspective, of course it took me some time to understand what was behind the lawyers' reluctance. Their reluctance stemmed precisely from this - from the fact that they had never attended such Webinars before and did not realise what an important opportunity for their career and their own personal development it was.

As for the other objective - attracting clientele and developing professional collaborations - here too we have faced much the same reluctance from lawyers. However, by the first quarter of the year we realised that lawyers are not able to collaborate with each other because they do not know each other well enough, because they do not have enough information about the professional capabilities of their counterparts and because they are not used to offering their own clients the legal services provided by another colleague in the network. Again, it was the novelty that imposed a hindrance or raised obstacles for us in achieving our objective. The solution was the same: to practise, to make things happen, and in this way we overcome reluctance through positive examples and the results we achieve.

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: You were talking about new developments that have emerged this year in addition to the initial plan... These are positive developments, activities that are appreciated by WOLEP members. What are we talking about?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: All these categories of activities, whether we are talking about the WOLEP Podcast, the Practice Areas opened, or the newly announced WOLEP Law Firms legal hub, I think are very important assets of the WOLEP network. They have emerged thanks to the high level of commitment of the WOLEP team, thanks to the attention they have shown to the lawyers who are Members of the WOLEP Network and, finally, thanks to the implementation of a principle that we have had since our foundation, namely to increase the usefulness and importance of the WOLEP network for its Members.

I find it very difficult to draw up a hierarchy of our activities. I consider them all to be very important, and I appreciate that each one adds value to the WOLEP network. Which is why I would not want to do an injustice if I tried to talk about these activities in a certain order, or only highlight the benefits of some at the expense of others. They are all valuable, and they are all strengths of the WOLEP network.

For me, the satisfaction is when things work and when the network becomes a good opportunity to work together, when I see that there are real opportunities for lawyers to collaborate with each other. My objective as the initiator of the WOLEP network has remained the same: to create a tool to facilitate professional collaboration between lawyers and, through this tool, to boost everyone’s professional capacities.

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: I think we are not wrong when we say that the past year has created a much stronger synergy between Members, and the Practice Areas launched by WOLEP are part of the third direction you mentioned in January this year, that of facilitating the professional collaboration of members. Where do we stand here? What has been achieved in 2023?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: First of all, I consider it a remarkable achievement that we have managed to develop 4 Practice Areas, 4 communities of lawyers working in different countries who have become members of smaller communities of lawyers with the four specialisations. These are Sports Law, Corporate Law, Real Estate Law and Criminal Law. We have plans to develop other Practice Areas, but at this point I would like to note a pleasant surprise, an extremely positive fact on which we have confirmation.

Within these Practice Areas, lawyers who have joined these mini-communities have developed a series of extremely easy communication tools, receive up-to-date information and are now able to develop personal relationships. Certainly, good, collegial personal relationships are the main precursor to future professional collaborations.

As the areas were set up quickly, the subject of the meetings, seminars and round tables organised in each practice area involved the exchange of information on the specific work of lawyers specialising in those areas. The purpose of this exchange of information was to enable the audience and participants to gain the necessary knowledge and evaluate their colleagues, thereby facilitating collaboration and preparing them to provide information to clients when making professional recommendations or providing services with other lawyers in other jurisdictions.

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: A WOLEP Physical Conference is planned for spring 2024. Why is it important and what are your expectations from it?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: This is the main regret I have about the activities carried out within the network this year, because we realised that it will not be possible to organise the physical meeting in autumn 2023. Initially this is how things were planned in our blueprints. Only, after the judicial recess, we had very little time to organise the meeting. The decision to move the Conference to spring 2024 I think was a wise one. For us at WOLEP, it is very important that the event is well organised and satisfies all the points of interest for the participants. As well as looking forward to meeting our colleagues at this meeting, it is essential that it is also productive for all participants.

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: Do you foresee, during the WOLEP Conference in 2024, specialized panels / activities grouped by practice areas?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: We will certainly have such activities. The main objective of the meeting is to establish professional relations and at the same time to transmit information about the work of lawyers to facilitate professional collaboration. This is Objective 1. We want to strengthen the relations between WOLEP members and create all the conditions that will lead to or bring about professional collaborations.

Teodor Burnar, Chief of Content WOLEP Network: Your message to WOLEP colleagues in the run-up to New Year 2024?

Romeo Cosma, WOLEP Network Coordinator: I wish my fellow lawyers good health, may they enjoy the winter holidays, may they rest during the festive period. I also hope that they will be bolder in expressing their needs within the WOLEP network. All my colleagues on the WOLEP staff are keen to hear what needs, or network development ideas they have, so that together we can put them into practice and succeed in building a strong and useful network for our Members.

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