Concordia asks Romania to withdraw bill requiring lawyers for company contracts

The bill and what it would require

Bill B563/2026 was filed in the Senate on 14 October, and its initiators asked for it to be debated and voted under the urgent procedure. Known publicly as "Avocat obligatoriu", the proposal would make it mandatory for companies in Romania to pay a lawyer to draft their contracts. According to the Concordia employers' confederation, the obligation would reach routine documents as well as large deals, including an addendum, a change to the Trade Register and a leasing contract. The confederation says the cost would apply to each signed document, so small firms would pay as much as a large company and would be hit hardest. Senator Daniel Fenechiu, a PNL member who is also vice president of the Romanian National Union of Bars (UNBR), filed the bill, and UNBR president Traian Briciu supports it.

Employers demand withdrawal

Concordia, which Ziare reports is led by Dan Șucu, has formally asked for the immediate withdrawal of the proposal. Its executive director, Paul Aparaschivei, argued that businesses never asked for the change.

“The companies did not ask for it. When they need a lawyer, they hire one on the open market.”

The confederation says the bill was never impact-assessed: nobody calculated what it would cost firms or how many contracts it would touch, and companies, accountants, lawyers and IT firms were not consulted. It wants a genuine consultation with business, the affected professions and civil society, and it asks whether a problem or urgency exists that the rule would actually solve. Concordia also says that "nobody explained what exactly needs solving". Oana Luca, vice president of FICSIMM for the North-West region, called the rule "a new tax on every document". She said the same charge for a microenterprise and a corporation falls hardest on the smallest firms, and that small and medium-sized businesses already feel the economic contraction in full.

Criminal liability and scope

Concordia says that if the proposal passes Parliament, accountants and in-house lawyers at companies could face criminal liability. It argues that the bill would give lawyers activities that accountants, in-house lawyers and debt-recovery companies perform legally today. The confederation frames this as a rule that would change how every firm in Romania signs its contracts, while the economy is slowing and firms need support to invest.

UNBR disputes the figures

Traian Briciu marked European Lawyers' Day with a message in which he rejected the idea that lawyers want to ban artificial intelligence. He said the claim spreads easily because it touches real fears about money, access to services and the future.

“Today we hear that we want to ban artificial intelligence or to oblige people to hire a lawyer for every small thing.”

UNBR has described the cost figures circulated by employers' associations as completely wrong. It argues that the financial impact was greatly overstated because the bill was read too broadly, as if every invoice, receipt or everyday micro-contract needed a lawyer's signature. The initiators say the bill aims to introduce legal prevention and protect the public from impostors, not to fleece citizens, and that no lawyer would be needed to conclude every contract.

Open questions

The available reports give no committee stage or vote date for the bill, and no cost estimate from its initiators. The most recent development is Concordia's withdrawal request, made on 26 October.