Viviana Alexandra Botoaca is the founding partner of the law firm BVA Law, having previously been an associate at Mușat & Asociații. With over nine years of experience, she provides legal representation and optimization services to some of the largest companies in the country. Combining her passions for law, natural sciences, and foreign languages, she graduated from the Turco-Romanian International Computer Science High School, obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Paris – Sorbonne in International and European Business Law, and an LLM in International Arbitration. She graciously answered a few questions for us.
C&B: What are the main focus areas in your practice?
Viviana Alexandra Botoaca: “My legal practice has two main trajectories. The first involves providing legal consultancy and representation in criminal, civil, and commercial law applied to sectors such as Agriculture, IT, Medical, Weapons and Ammunition, Transportation, and Real Estate. In this regard, I have assisted individuals and legal entities both domestically and internationally, providing legal representation in negotiations, lawsuits, and significant cross-border transactions. For example, I successfully provided legal assistance and representation in the Microsoft case, for medical companies abroad (such as the Vinci Aesthetics group), agriculture (such as Rodbun, Map Agricultura), negotiations between major European companies, for Naval Transportation companies (such as Romnav), and for the Romanian Association of the Blind.
Concurrently, the second trajectory of my activity involves the constant optimization of businesses to ensure an upward trajectory towards their maximum development potential. I believe that the role of a lawyer should not be limited to providing legal assistance in unfavorable situations but should also ensure the harmonious development of a client’s entire business. The legal and business optimization process I initiate involves legal assistance in identifying sources of losses or hindrances to development, proposing solutions to reduce or eliminate them, improving internal legal mechanisms for business management, and proposing projects with the potential for the development of the respective companies.”
C&B: What is the story of your professional evolution?
Viviana Alexandra Botoaca: “Until I graduated from college, I studied five foreign languages (German, Turkish, English, French, and Spanish). In the first four years of my legal career, I worked in large law firms, in an environment that allowed me to observe the approach of exceptional and experienced lawyers, learn, constantly surpass my limits, and choose the professional direction I wanted to take. Gradually, however, the desire to work independently, to make my own project and collaboration selections, took shape. A decisive moment was when, following a successfully concluded negotiation for my client, the opposing party later sought my legal services, and that’s when I considered it opportune to start my own practice.”
C&B: What were your visions in childhood/adolescence, and what are they now?
Viviana Alexandra Botoaca: “During childhood, I spoke up in defense of those I perceived as unjustly treated and advocated for various causes that I considered just for the communities to which I belonged. During high school, I was selected to participate in the Youth Leaders International program, during which I gave my first speech at the University of Oxford on the career I wanted to pursue – law. Later, I participated in debates in the European Parliament on legislative issues, and childhood visions materialized into a vocation for a legal career.
Currently, the visions are essentially similar to those from childhood, regarding the people I want to collaborate with or the projects I get involved in, only everything unfolds on an increasingly larger scale.
I have noticed that often in the national legal system, especially regarding litigation, well-trodden paths are used, and there is a reluctance to try new approaches legislatively. Therefore, presently, on a national level, the vision is to change jurisprudence where certain solutions that are no longer adapted to today’s society have taken root. The way I approach and interpret national legislation is atypical and sometimes in discordance with the general perspective, but I seek and find new solutions, always tailored to each specific litigation, and confidence in my own vision has proven to be successful.”
C&B: How has/is the Pandemic Crisis influencing your work?
Viviana Alexandra Botoaca: “In this Pandemic Crisis, although it was a challenging period, my legal activity continued and even developed in new directions. Regarding the courts, the reduction in their activity delayed the resolution of pending lawsuits, but certain aspects improved. For example, the process of digitization (electronic files), remote communication with the courts, and the establishment of fixed hours for cases have been accelerated, solutions that will be used in the future and significantly reduce the time previously lost.
I used the time made available by the inactivity of the courts to develop legislative and humanitarian projects to support the situation in March. For example, in early March, I drafted the legislative project on the Prevention and Combating of Covid-19 in food sales centers, pharmacies, and gas stations (with solutions such as wearing masks, installing disinfectant dispensers in these centers, solutions that are now implemented nationwide), and I started, together with two partners, the project Together we test the medical staff in Romania, during which we donated thousands of tests to hospitals in Romania.
The conclusion regarding activity during the Pandemic Crisis is that you always have to stay calm and focused, observe and constantly adapt to any situation that arises, so that you can see opportunities and positive aspects in any situation.”
C&B: What advice do you have for those at the beginning or undecided?
Viviana Alexandra Botoaca: “For those at the beginning, I believe it is essential to set realistic goals and follow them with tenacity, maintaining a dose of flexibility, having confidence in their own strengths and visions, as the field of law has no limits. Be prepared and eager to learn, work hard, understand that you must constantly develop, and always be honest, as this is essential for maintaining fruitful long-term collaborations.
For those undecided… I believe that the practice of law can only be pursued with passion and a thirst for it, and when there is passion, there is no room for uncertainties.