Career
Cosmin Vasile is managing partner of Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners and head of the firm’s Arbitration Practice Group. He has extensive experience of more than 20 years in handling cross-border disputes and boasts already an outstanding track-record of around 100 international arbitration proceedings as counsel and arbitrator conducted under various laws and sets of arbitration rules, including ICC, LCIA, CAM, SCC, VIAC, UNCITRAL, ICSID and CICA.
Cosmin has successfully coordinated an impressive number of significant and mission critical disputes for his clients, often in the glare of media attention. Winning groundbreaking awards for his clients in Romania has brought him international recognition and a well-deserved place among the best arbitration practitioners worldwide, being held in esteem for his work as a counsel. As one of the leading experts in construction, capital markets, privatization and energy arbitrations in Romania, Cosmin is called upon to provide legal counsel to both government institutions and private companies.
Cosmin is one of the top Romanian lawyers with significant experience in investment arbitration, having advised both on high-profile ICSID and ad-hoc investor-state arbitrations. He helps clients in a variety of industries including energy, infrastructure and financial services and is valued for his in-depth knowledge of procedural rules, investment arbitration case law, public international law, and investment treaty interpretation.
Cosmin has acted in cases concerning a wide range of commercial contracts in various industry sectors. Cosmin regularly sits as arbitrator in domestic and international proceedings. In addition to his recent appointment to the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, he is a CIETAC and CICA arbitrator and acts as a member of several arbitration institutions including the SCC Arbitrators’ Council, the IBA Arbitration (Secretary and co-chair of the Eastern Europe Arbitration Group) and Dispute Resolution Committees, and The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London. Since 2015 he is a member of the Court College of The Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania.
In court, Cosmin has an impressive record, being popular among major domestic and international corporations for advice in high-profile commercial, administrative-contentious, public procurement and capital markets disputes. During the last years, he has focused on cross-border litigations, international private law matters and a wide range of commercial disputes in various industry sectors, such as construction, energy, privatization, M&A. Cosmin also acts for a significant client roster in intellectual property matters, being a highly regarded IP litigator in both patent and trademarks.
Cosmin was the ICC YAF Regional Representative for the Europe and Russia chapter for the 2017–2019 mandate. From this position, he was responsible with the promotion and development of the dynamic global network of young arbitration talent.
He regularly speaks and publishes on topics related to arbitration and is a member of the Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Committees of the International Bar Association (IBA). He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Bucharest and defended his doctoral thesis on the topic “The Applicable Law in the Ad Hoc Commercial Arbitration” (2011). Cosmin is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London (FCIArb) since 2012 and holds a diploma in International Arbitration from this institute. He has been awarded the Certificate of the ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for Central and Eastern Europe and the Certificate of the International Academy for Arbitration Law (Paris).
