Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners

Arbitration, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property

Managing Partner

Dr. 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 24 years in handling cross-border disputes and boasts already an outstanding track-record of over 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. In addition, Cosmin has also been involved as a legal expert in arbitration and court proceedings, providing specialized opinions on complex matters of international arbitration law, procedural issues and public international law.

Cosmin has successfully coordinated an impressive number of significant and mission critical disputes for his clients, often in the glare of media attention. 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 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 (Co-Chair of the Insolvency and International Arbitration Working Group) Committee, and The Institute for Transnational Arbitration. 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.

In parallel with his arbitration practice, Cosmin Vasile maintains a strong academic presence. He is currently a trainer for the Global Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration awarded by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), following his recent appointment in April 2025. Since 2020, he has served as a visiting professor in the LL.M. program in International Arbitration at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law. Cosmin also lectures on Civil Procedure and Arbitration Law at the National Institute for the Professional Training of Lawyers in Bucharest, a position he has held since 2004. His academic engagements further extend internationally, as he is regularly invited to teach at arbitration programs and institutions abroad, including the SCC Arbitrators’ Council under the auspices of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

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).

English, Romanian

National Association of Romanian Bars International Bar Association (Co-Chair of the Insolvency and International Arbitration Working Group) International Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Committee, Member The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London (Member, Fellow) Young International Arbitration Group, Court of International Arbitration, London China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) (Arbitrator) International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Arbitrator, Conciliator) The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) (Member) Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, SCC Arbitrators' Council (Member of the Council) The Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (Member of the Court College, Arbitrator) ICC Young Arbitrators Forum International Council for Commercial Arbitration International Arbitration Institute (IAI Paris) Dispute Resolution International Board, IBA The Alternative Banking Dispute Resolution Centre (Conciliator) Institute for Transnational Arbitration  (Co-Chair of the European Task Force, Member of the Advisory Board)

BA in Law, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest | 2001 LL.M in Public Law, National School of Political and Administrative Studies | 2002 Psychology and Pedagogy Studies, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bucharest | 2003 Post-graduate Studies in Private Law, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest | 2004 Ph.D in Law, Thesis “The applicable Law in the ad-hoc Commercial Arbitration”, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest | 2011 Diploma in International Arbitration, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London | 2012 Certificate ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for Central and Eastern Europe | 2015 Diploma International Academy for Arbitration Law, Paris | 2016 Diploma Reimagining Strategy: Applying Design Thinking To Your Organization, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts ǀ 2020