Deputy Managing Partner
Suciu Partners
cleopatra.leahu@suciupartners.ro
Romania
With over 23 years of legal experience, Cleopatra Leahu is widely recognised as one of the market’s leading practitioners in international commercial law, with a profound specialisation in the energy, natural resources, and international arbitration sectors. Her full-service practice is focused on cross-border M&A, public procurement, regulatory compliance, employment and labour, and environmental law. She is highly proficient in advising high-profile oil, gas, and mining companies on complex project developments, intricate permitting processes, and the structuring of strategic concession frameworks.
She has recently completed a number of major transactions and contract negotiations in the infrastructure, heavy manufacturing, and energy industry sectors in Romania and across Central and Eastern Europe. On an international level, she has extensive experience representing private clients and global players as counsel in high-value international and domestic arbitration proceedings conducted under ICC and major institutional rules, notably handling concession disputes and infrastructure claims based on FIDIC frameworks.
Consistently ranked for a decade by Chambers Europe as a top-tier expert in Energy & Natural Resources, Cleopatra is also nominated by GAR 100 for her arbitration practice. Furthermore, she is ranked as a Leading Lawyer by Legal 500 and Highly Regarded as an IFLR Women Leader in Energy & Infrastructure, M&A, and Project Development.
Member of the Bucharest Bar and the Association of International Energy Negotiators, she holds a law degree from the University of Bucharest, an ICC Certificate of Achievement in Arbitration, and is a certified expert in Public Procurement and PPP frameworks.
