Euro Elite 2024: Italy – Time to shine

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Euro Elite 2024: Italy – Time to shine

The instability caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s war with Ukraine, with the resulting gas supply difficulties and growing inflation, has affected the Italian legal market as much as anywhere else. This notwithstanding, Italy’s leading independent law firms were able to curb the slowdown in some practices and achieve excellent results in others, most notably through investment in technology and new talent.

Perhaps the most interesting development was the launch, on 1 January 2024, of PedersoliGattai, resulting from the merger of Gattai, Minoli Partners and Euro Elite firm Pedersoli, together with a third group of professionals led by Carlo Montagna and Stefano Cacchi Pessani. PedersoliGattai has ambitions to be an Italian legal powerhouse offering consultancy services in a range of practice areas. The firm hopes, according to founding partner Bruno Gattai, to provide ‘better advice on cross-border deals in M&A and banking and finance’. Continue reading “Euro Elite 2024: Italy – Time to shine”

Sponsored thought leadership: How the ESG S-factor is widening the traditional concept of labour law consultancy

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Sponsored thought leadership: How the ESG S-factor is widening the traditional concept of labour law consultancy

In recent years, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors have been subject to a growing and constant evolution within the European Union and its member states, which has led sustainability to assume an increasingly important role in the economic and social context. Sustainability has become a competitive, strategic and organisational tool for creating added value, with the ambition of being able to measure organisations’ sustainability performance based on predetermined KPIs (ie standard GRI and ESRS).

Continue reading “Sponsored thought leadership: How the ESG S-factor is widening the traditional concept of labour law consultancy”

Sponsored Q&A: AndPartners

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Sponsored Q&A: AndPartners

1. What is the core philosophy or guiding principle of your law firm?

We have six keywords governing the overall philosophy of our firm:

a. SUSTAINABILITY: What makes a business sustainable? In our opinion, respect and regard toward all the resources that contribute to it: the firm’s professionals, whose growth and appreciation we foster; the work environment, made up of environmentally sustainable materials; the taxpayer, with whom we want to build a trust-based relationship; the institutions, with whom we want to have transparent discussions.

b. NETWORKING: Dialogue and discussion are the basis of our ‘networking’. Earnest, transparent, and solid personal relationships to work well, fully respecting know-how and rules. We work as a team creating positive synergies to foster the growth of our profession, of the national, European, and worldwide context.

c. INNOVATION: We are on a path of continuous evolution. Keeping an open mind is the way to innovate and improve our personal and professional relationships. We keep up with technology to improve our work and our clients’.

d. GROWTH: 360-degree growth and understanding: growth for the client and for the economy around us, professional growth by focusing on continuing education and on appreciating our professionals.

e. ESG: Environmental social governance: we deal with internal relationships by appreciating from time to time whoever has the right skills for the best possible result; we support our clients’ propensity towards ESG criteria; we respect the environment with environmentally sustainable choices; we devote part of our time to socially useful endeavours.

f. COMMITMENT: It’s obvious for a tax and law firm to strive for utmost commitment. We’ve chosen this principle to remind us of this, to clearly see that commitment does not just consist in doing our job well, but in doing so by ensuring that all our inspiring principles are still valid.

Continue reading “Sponsored Q&A: AndPartners”

Euro Elite 2023: Italy – Toughening up

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Euro Elite 2023: Italy – Toughening up

While the three years following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic were marked by instability and uncertainty – exacerbated by Russia’s war against Ukraine resulting in gas supply issues and inflation – law firms have been presented with opportunities for expansion and growth within a significantly reshaped legal market. With Italy among the European countries that suffered the most from both the pandemic and the energy crisis, its legal community has been concerned as to their fate in 2022.

Both large international and independent law firms faced an arduous business environment, characterised by tightened competition, shifting client needs, technological advancement and strict regulatory developments. Despite these challenges, many of Italy’s best independent law firms were able to achieve strong results in 2022 and have unanimously reported their busiest and most successful years, with an average increase in revenue of up to 10%. Continue reading “Euro Elite 2023: Italy – Toughening up”

Euro Elite Italy: La dolce vita

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Euro Elite Italy: La dolce vita

Our Euro Elite report in 2021 noted how the Italian legal landscape, dominated by independent law firms, had been more resilient to the pandemic than initially predicted. A year later, with the global crisis still not over, the verdict still holds true. With its consistently healthy market, Italy’s future outlook remains positive.

Italian law firms across the board saw their turnover increase by an average of 4% in 2020 compared to the previous year. Looking at the firms with the highest turnover, only 10% registered a decline, while 20% were able to maintain the same revenues. Meanwhile, a striking 70% reported growth of varying degrees – from feeble to impressive. Within this group are, on the one hand, international firms with a strong Italian presence that were able to consolidate their position and, on the other, independent Italian players including Legance, Chiomenti and Advant Nctm, while multi-practice boutique firm Pedersoli also achieved remarkable success. Continue reading “Euro Elite Italy: La dolce vita”

‘Independent thinker’ Greenberg Traurig picks Milan as latest step of unusual European footprint

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‘Independent thinker’ Greenberg Traurig picks Milan as latest step of unusual European footprint

Greenberg Traurig’s executive chair Richard Rosenbaum has pointed to his firm’s track record for independent thinking as it enters Italy through a merger in Milan.

In July, the northern Italian city will become the location of the Miami-bred firm’s 40th office, after Greenberg absorbs its local ally of 14 years, Santa Maria Studio Legale. Two Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer veterans will also join the firm’s first Italian base: local real estate head Marzio Longo and finance partner Corrado Angelelli, giving it a starting team of around 50 lawyers. Continue reading “‘Independent thinker’ Greenberg Traurig picks Milan as latest step of unusual European footprint”

The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves

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The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves

Looking out of the window of his office overlooking the picturesque Piazza del Duomo on a rainy April afternoon, one veteran Milan partner is feeling sentimental: ‘I remember the firms that used to dominate the market back when I started – Graziadei, Carnelutti, Pavia Ansaldo. No-one hears of them anymore.’ What on the surface seems nostalgic reflection poses a pressing question for Italy’s current legal elite: what will become of today’s top independents in the near future?

‘It is as if the market gets tired of dominating firms every ten years or so and replaces them with others,’ agrees a partner in another office in the northern Italian city. Continue reading “The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves”

The generation game – Linklaters makes Italian corporate play with veteran rainmaker Casati

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The generation game – Linklaters makes Italian corporate play with veteran rainmaker Casati

It is well known that Italian law firms owe much of their fortunes to a small group of veteran rainmakers when it comes to M&A work. In a market still dominated by elder statesmen and their decades-long connections with the country’s top corporates, 69-year-old Roberto Casati leaving Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to join Linklaters is one of the most significant lateral moves in the country for years.

In a bid by the international giant to expand beyond its finance and capital markets focus into mainstream corporate, Linklaters drafted a waiver to its partnership terms to allow Casati to join the firm at the top of its equity ladder, a deal worth around £2m annually. Continue reading “The generation game – Linklaters makes Italian corporate play with veteran rainmaker Casati”