FOUNDERS

FOUNDER

Anthony Raftopol
Founder
Ternir Group
Romania / USA

As Managing Partner of Ternir Group, Anthony Raftopol is a Europe-based, United States-trained international lawyer focusing for almost 25 years in a wide variety of  cross-border commercial transactions in the Middle East, N. Africa and Eastern Europe, quite often in jurisdictions transitioning from authoritarian rule, social instability and open conflict.

Mr. Raftopol’s first professional assignment was in the former Soviet Union in the last months under General Secretary Gorbachev, and he has worked in the former Eastern Bloc countries for much of his career.  Mr. Raftopol has also worked extensively in the Middle East, including nearly five years living and working full time in the Republic of Iraq, where he had to navigate the complex local bureaucracy as well the hard-to interpret legislation imposed by forces as disparate as the Ba’ath Party, the Coalition Provisional Authority as well as the resultant current chaotic political system.  Mr. Raftopol has also spent several years living and working in the Emirate of Dubai during a period of increasing economic and political reforms leading up to the COVID pandemic.

Mr. Raftopol is a long-time former member and/or partner of several international law firms, including Dentons (previously Salans), the Iraq Law Alliance, MENA Legal in Dubai and Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C. in New York City.  He is currently a member of the Bar of the State of New York and is a former member of the Bar of Bucharest, Romania, as well as a graduate of Northwestern University and the Boston University School of Law in the U.S.

In addition to his native English and Romanian, Mr. Raftopol speaks and/or works in the Italian, Spanish and French languages and has a working knowledge of Dutch.