Environmental matters are governed by complex regulations which are constantly developing and increasing the requirements for compliance: they certainly represent one of the most challenging areas for companies and businesses. National and international companies operating in Italy face considerable difficulties in securing compliance with Environmental regulations.We are proud to be able to offer outstanding skills and long standing experience in these matters, providing not only traditional advice and support in litigation, but also the unique expertise our practice has accrued in the environmental risk management for primary national and international corporations.In addition we have developed a concurrent expertise in the area of occupational health and safety, providing assistance in connection with ancillary matters such as safety and health requirements at construction sites, delegation of authority in safety matters and insurance related matters. We are also in a position to assist our clients – through established professional ties with specialists in criminal law – on all matters relating to corporate liability under Legislative Decree 231/01.
The handling of the phases preceding litigation and the assessment of litigation risk are core features of our service to clients – business clients especially – not least with a view to facilitating recourse to ADR (alternative dispute resolution) and, in keeping with this approach, handling content and strategy in pending or potential settlement negotiations. The objective is to give our clients every possible means of achieving a proper balance of legal costs against litigation risk in each particular case. As part of our legal defence activities strictly understood, we help our clients handle lawsuits before ordinary and special courts and in national and international arbitration, including highly complex cases in all the usual areas of business law and public law, as well as in proceedings before independent authorities. The flexibility of our work teams and the way we combine the various specialist skills mean we can guarantee our clients the highest quality legal support, including support in situations where emergency measures are needed for their protection, whether in Italy or in foreign jurisdictions.
Our activities in the field of Antitrust and Competition law consist in the first place of assistance in analysing the potential competition law implications of transactions and contracts. We offer specific support on issues concerning restrictive agreements, abuse of dominant position and merger control, with a view both to preventing antitrust offences or arguing against antitrust charges and to removing anti-competitive obstacles posed by other undertakings. The services we provide include plain advice, also with respect to compliance programs, and advocacy before the Italian Competition Authority or the European Commission, as well as before the ordinary courts in the context of private enforcement actions (actions for compensation of damages for breach of competition law) or before the administrative courts when appealing the decisions of public enforcement agencies. Our expertise extends to the neighbouring areas of unfair competition, misleading advertising and unfair commercial practices.
We provide our clients with specialist expert legal advice and support on all aspects of corporate, commercial law and insolvency proceedings. Our experience enables us to effectively support our clients in drawing up and executing a very wide range of legal deeds involved in corporate management (capital operations, creation of different classes of shareholders, intercompany transactions and reorganisations, joint ventures) as well Italian and international commercial practice (from distribution, agency, franchising, service, work or procurement contracts, sale and purchase agreements, licences, sponsorships, and advertising to the less usual and more innovative forms of contract). Every day we are engaged in helping Italian and foreign clients with all sorts of business-related agreement, supporting them from the early stages of negotiation, through detailed discussion of key clauses, to the actual drawing up of the final contract itself. As a natural extension of our work in commercial and corporate law, we support our clients in reaching settlements for dealing with financial crises by means of procedures negotiated with creditors, if need be all the way to insolvency litigation, where our experts are equally at home working to protect entrepreneurs in such proceedings as advising liquidators and the authorities, making the most of their expertise in substantive and procedural law mainly in the context of claw-back actions or involving the potential liability of directors and auditors.
Our considerable experience enables us to guarantee a high level of support and professionalism to our clients – who are big Italian and multinational groups as well as small and medium-sized businesses active in manufacturing, services, and communication – both at the initial stage of working out the legal structure of the transaction (merger/spin-off and/or acquisition, transfer of shares or of assets). Our work naturally includes support in negotiating and drawing up confidentiality agreements and letters of intent, drafting and agreeing contract terms, company’s minutes and providing support on all the other legal paperwork needed to complete such extraordinary corporate transactions. In this context we ensure proper interaction among the various specialists engaged (employment law, tax, or antitrust experts) and encourage the involvement of professionals from outside the work team whenever necessary. We provide legal due diligence services whenever required.
Our approach to intellectual property is innovative: people’s and businesses’ ideas and creativity are fundamental assets to today’s economy, but in our view there is no one size fits all scheme. We are of the opinion that alongside the traditional exclusive rights which our practice deals with, there can also be ways in which the benefits of intangible assets can be shared: in such instances we also offer support on issues concerning open source and open licences in general. We call what we do intellectual asset management, because we give right owners a full picture of the options available to them for protecting and exploiting their rights. We take particular interest in working for and with businesses engaged in the innovative areas of information technology and new media, and all the novel challenges they present to lawyers. The intangible assets we cover also include such rights of individuals as the right to one’s image and personal reputation (in which we are actively engaged), and the right to the protection of personal data and privacy. On this latter point, we offer businesses the special expertise we have acquired in drawing up privacy policies and solving problems connected with the handling of personal data across national borders.
Real estate law is a multidisciplinary area requiring competences of civil law as well as administrative law (ranging from town and country planning regulations to environmental regulations). At the same time it requires familiarity with the various corporate and contractual structures, including constantly evolving financial structures such as collective winvestment schemes. We are happy to make available to our clients all the professional experience our firm has acquired through many years of advising in this market for the benefit of numerous clients, including some leading national and international property investors and managers. We assist our clients as a matter of course on all aspects of property law, from the organisation and implementation of single asset deals to complex development projects, and on property management as well, dealing among other things with zoning and environmental aspects. We are involved with all relevant contract forms (sale, transfer, leasing, renting, bailment, as well as leasing of branches of business as going concern), and provide support in the various stages involved in getting the appropriate building and operating permits. One of the fields in which we are most actively engaged is the carrying out of real estate transactions by means of collective investments schemes such as investment funds; here we can assist in all phases from the funds’ incorporation, to the investment and management stages.
