I met Tudor Colțan in 2017, when I joined him in building Legal Runners, which would go on to become the largest running community within Romania's legal profession. I was among the first people Tudor ran with in support of social causes, and I have followed his journey closely ever since, for nearly ten years now.
I have watched him grow professionally, take on increasingly ambitious projects, and keep moving forward even when the road was anything but easy. And for a business lawyer starting from scratch, it often wasn't.
Tudor is deeply committed to his work. He genuinely loves what he does, and he is that slightly "crazy" kind of person who wakes up in the morning excited to get to work.
I often think he is a workaholic in the truest sense of the word. But I do not see that as a flaw. I am much the same, which is probably why I understand and appreciate the passion he brings to his work.
Over the years, I have also come to value one particular quality in Tudor more and more: he respects other people's time. And I am not referring only to the professional relationship between a lawyer and a client. Tudor respects your time simply because he respects you as a person.
In a world where far too many people behave as though someone else's time somehow belongs to them, I think this has become an increasingly rare quality and, precisely for that reason, an increasingly valuable one.
He is a genuine professional, with excellent instincts and a remarkable ability to sense very quickly when something is not quite right. He knows when someone truly understands what they are talking about and when they are merely pretending to know, or simply trying to bluff their way through a conversation.
He values fairness, quality and good taste, and I think that combination says a great deal about the way he has built his career.
The success he enjoys today did not happen overnight, nor was it the result of fortunate circumstances. Behind it are years of hard work and many sacrifices that most people know nothing about.
Tudor is a guy from Târgu Jiu who came to Bucharest by train and had to fight for his place in an intensely competitive world. A damn competitive one.
Today, he has reached remarkable professional heights without forgetting where he came from. And you can feel that every time you speak to him.
I am proud to call him a friend, and I am equally glad to see him become one of those people who, without holding any official position or title, end up serving as unofficial ambassadors for Romania simply through what they do.
And I say that as a journalist because, ultimately, a country is sometimes represented far better by the people who excel beyond its borders than by those who officially speak on its behalf while producing very little of real value.
Tudor sees life as a marathon. If you ever meet him, ask him how much discipline it took to prepare for his first marathon and how I cheered him on from the sidelines when he felt he had nothing left. Somewhere along the way, he understood that the real competition was never with the people around him. It was with his own limits.
I recommend Tudor as a lawyer, but even more than that, I recommend him as someone worth sitting down with for at least one hour in your life. Chances are, by the end of that hour, you will want to have another coffee with him. 😉
Marco Badea
Journalist & Founder
THE CONTEXT
Nearly 10 Years · Legal Runners · Professional Journey · Social Impact