The world we work in rarely stays still. Rules change, the ground shifts, and the map that worked yesterday is wrong by today’s lunch time. For twenty years, we have met this reality with entrepreneurial boldness, and the occasional deep breath. As we mark our 20th anniversary, I know the story was never only ours. It belongs just as much to the people who walked this path with us, and who we hope will stick around.
Twenty years ago, we started almost from scratch. Each of the founding partners already had a solid career and an easy road ahead. We left it for entrepreneurship and independence. It remains the best decision we have ever made.
I am wary of origin stories. A lot of businesses say they began in pursuit of some grand purpose, and I suspect most of that gets romanticised and tidied up after the fact. We never claimed it. We did not start out to change the world. The purpose came later, out of the work itself: to make a real and lasting positive impact on the lives of our clients, our partners, our colleagues and the people around us, by taking the pretension out of law and making it accessible and fair to those it is meant to serve. That is what held us together, not a grand vision from day one.
How do you get through twenty years in a market that transforms itself faster than anyone can keep up with? You don't do it alone. Our timing, it must be said, has been eventful: financial crises, a pandemic, a war on our border, and now an artificial intelligence revolution that intends to rearrange everything. We are still here, and still in good spirits about it. Whatever comes next, the answer is the same one it has always been: people who trust each other, and lawyers who do the work without the theatrics.
To our clients and partners, thank you for your trust. Many of you have been with us since the first year, and that loyalty matters to us more than any other milestone. To our colleagues, past and present, the founding partners, the ones who joined later and grew with us, the whole bpv GRIGORESCU ȘTEFĂNICĂ team and our friends across bpv LEGAL: we built this together. None of it stands without you.
We did not set out to change the world. We set out to take the pretension out of law, and that turned out to be the bigger ambition. Here's to twenty years of shared wins, and to whatever comes next. We will meet it the same way we always have: together, ready for the challenge, and considerably more experienced than we were on day one.
