Head Stefano Sutti, LL.M.
Specialisations Admiralty, Maritime and Transportation Law; Commercial Contracts; Commercial Litigation and Arbitration; B2B and B2C E-Commerce; Company Law; Corporate Tax Planning; Corporate Finance; Mergers and Acquisitions; IT & TLC Law; White Collar Crime; Construction Law; Commercial Agency, Distributorship and Franchising Law; Customs & Excise Law; Debt Recovery; Environmental Matters; Insolvency; EC Law; Engineering Contracts; Establishment of Subsidiaries in Italy; Enforcement of Foreign Judgements and Awards in Italy; Finance and Banking Law; International Trade; Joint Ventures; IPOs and Admission to Public Markets; Mergers & Acquisitions; Oil & Energy Law; International Trade; Product Liability; Commercial Property; Administrative Law and Regulatory Matters; Project Finance; Shipping.
Counsel to our Company-Commercial Law Department are Prof. Tito Ballarino, Prof. Bruno Sassani, Ludovico Della Penna and Fulvio Moneta-Caglio de Suvich.
In the framework of the same department, the Environmental Law Group, the IT Group and the Y2K/Euro Currency Task Force are active.
Financial, accounting and marketing issues related to the services described above are nowadays more effectively dealt with thank to the presence, among SLS’s members, of a number of Steuerberater or commercialisti (i.e., accountants / auditors / tax advisors / business consultants), with an economic and business, rather than legal, background. Since the last quarter of 2003, however, our tax practice, which used to be included in our Company-Commercial Law Dept., has become the province of a newly-established Tax Department.
Studio Legale Sutti has been along the years nominated as ACQ‘s Corporate & Commercial Litigation Firm of the Year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) and International Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year in Italy (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017), M&A Today‘s Law Firm of the Year – Commercial Litigation (2015, 2017) and International Commercial Litigation Advisory Firm of the Year (2015, 2017), Corporate INTL‘s International Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year in Italy (2017), Litigation Law Firm of the Year (2013), Corporate and commercial litigation (2012), Acquisition International‘s International Commercial Litigation Advisory Firm of the Year (2017), and Corporate & Commercial Litigation Firm of the Year (2017), Global Law Expert‘s Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year in Italy (2014. 2015), Corporatelivewire / Fenice Media‘s International Commercial Litigation (2013), Setup Verseas International Commercial Litigation (2012), World Finance‘s Best Banking & Finance Firm in Romania (2011), Best Foreign Investment Firm in Romania (2011).
Moreover, Stefano Sutti has been awarded as Acquisition International‘s Commercial Lawyer of the Year (2017), ACQ‘s Commercial Lawyer of the Year (2017).
Comments of Independent Sources and Additional Details
SLS’s Company-Commercial practice was “highly recommended” by the 1999 edition of European Counsel 3000 (published by L&C Publishing Ltd.), with a particular emphasis on commercial litigation and business criminal defence. The same source already mentioned in 1998 among our “strong areas of practice”: construction agreements, commercial property, M&A work, IT matters, commercial contracts, general commercial practice, white collar crime defense (with specific regard to bribery and insider trading); while its 1997 edition cited as well the “outstanding reputation” of Studio Legale Sutti’s Senior Partner, Marco Monti, for corporate finance work. Its last edition in 1999 added mentions of our work for the pharmacetical sector; and emphasised SLS strong links to the English market, also due to its presence on site, with respect to Corporate Finance and M&A work.
Now, Global Counsel 3000, the new annual practice survey by the same publisher, listed us in 2000 among the Italian firms which are “highly recommended” for, inter alia: corporate finance, M&A, commercial property, litigation, while construction, business crime and product liability are also mentioned as “strong areas of practice”. More specifically, SLS was mentioned for its experience in representation of American companies in M&A transactions and in the establishment of subsidiaries in Italy, as is Marco Monti for company-commercial work, Cesare Bulgheroni for white collar crime, and the Firm in general for “Internet-related” matters, and for its experience with the pharmaceutical sector. In the 2001-2002 edition recommendations for SLS can be found with respect to general company-commercial work, M&A, commercial property and construction, white collar crime, technology and telecoms. Consistently, in the 2002, 2003, 2004 editions we are recommended for “M&A“, “Communications” (which is also an independent recommendation for our Bucharest office), “Real Estate & Construction“, and highly recommended for “Dispute Resolution” and “White Collar Crime” (Cesare Bulgheroni), and for “Company & Corporate Transactions” (Marco Monti), the latter being also an independent recommendation of our Sofia office for Bulgarian legal services, and of our Belgrade office for Serbian legal services. Similarly, Marco Monti is personally recommended by the “Corporate and Commercial” section of European Legal Experts (Legalease).
Studio Legale Sutti expertise in M&A is again recognised by a recent survey of the Italian major legal players published by Lombard – The Italian Magazine of International Finance (February 2003).
Stefano Sutti, the Head of the Department and the Firm’s Managing Partner, is instead personally recommended for “corporate work” in the results of the analysis of the Italian legal market following recommendations by London lawyers, which is available online on the World Legal Forum – A Guide to Law Firms around the Globe, and has been published by the issue of June 1999 of the British magazine InBrief. The same analysis also recommends Studio Legale Sutti for, inter alia, commercial property matters. Similarly, Stefano Sutti and SLS are recommended to all American attorneys by the American Bar Association‘s prestigious Guide to Foreign Law Firms, edited by the Section of International Law and Practice, and Stefano Sutti is recommended by the “Commercial Litigation & Arbitration” section of European Legal Expert.
Our Company-Commercial Dept. was already praised for its general commercial practice by Legal 500 – Law Firms in Europe 1998 (published by Legalease). Its 1999 edition, mentioning again SLS’s “excellent corporate and commercial practice”, noted also that “it is the only major Italian firm to operate a high-profile white-collar crime department”; and in 2000 we are again among the recommended Italian “Italy’s leading commercial law firms” and commended for our international connections and our work in the area of private and public capital joint-ventures, “incubatory” services for start-ups, and IT law for major corporate clients (an online version of the Legal 500 series is available on the web site of the International Centre for Commercial Law). The same year, SLS was also especially recommended, in the section on Italian firms having an office in the United Kingdom, for “Corporate & Commercial”, “General Inward Investment”, “Dispute Resolution“. and “IP and IT“. In 2001, we were recommended for “commercial work” in general, and in 2002 we are for M&A work, as well as for our IT & TLC expertise and Marco Monti is noted for banking and finance work. The same publication also remarks that our Genoa office “offers the full range of commercial law services, with specialised assistance in the areas of maritime and admiralty law“; and notes as well the expertise of our Sofia Office in “commercial law, privatisation, arbitration,… banking and tax law”. In 2003 and 2004 the same publication mentions SLS as one of the “Leading Firms” in Genoa; and recommends us for “Corporate and Commercial” work in Milan and Rome, in Bulgaria, in Serbia and in Romania; for “Banking, Finance and Capital Markets”, and “EU, Regulatory & Competition” in Milan and Rome; for “Privatisation & Foreign Investments” and “Project Finance & Construction” in Bulgaria.
The fact that SLS’s business legal services are not limited nowadays to private law and civil litigation is stressed by other independent sources, such as The International Projects 500. The Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Advisers 1997-1999 (published by Legalease Ltd.), where we are among the only eight law firms indicated as having a true project finance expertise in our jurisdiction.
Studio Legale Sutti is also the only Italian firm listed under “Financial and Banking Law Attorneys” and “Construction Law Attorneys” by the American Legal-ease Attorney Listing Service (not to be confused with the British publishing company Legalease Ltd.); and it has been included for a long period in the “Commercial Law Firms Register” published in each issue of the bi-monthly European Corporate Lawyer (Legalease Ltd.).
SLS has been once more recommended for its Commercial Litigation services by the Dispute Resolution Contacts Handbook (published by Euromoney). Similarly, ILFR’s 1000 – The Guide to the World’s Leading International Business Law Firms 2000 (published by Legalmediagroup, and now also on the Web), recommended Studio Legale Sutti’s for contentious matters, namely in the area of Y2K and business crime, mentioning Stefano Sutti and others; the 2002 and 2003 editions emphasises instead our Sofia office‘s specialisations in international trade and company law. and lists us under the areas “Banking”, “Capital Markets”, “M&A” and “Project Finance” and “Insolvency & Restructuring” in its Italian section. In 2004, the same publication notes that we have developed close links with several UK firms for their clients’ needs related to the acquisition of companies in Italy, and again mentions our “advances in the area of project finance”.
In addition, we are considered to be among the few Italian large, international firms having a substantial debt collection and insolvency practice, which is extended to the enforcement of foreign judgments in Italy. Thus, we were especially proud to be the first and only Italian firm to be listed, as per their announcement 17/01/2000, by CRI – Specialist Debt Collection Insolvency Practitioners, in their small directory of debt collection and involvency specialists.
Further specific information with respect to our litigation and arbitration practice is also available on this site.
For more information concerning our IT & TLC legal services, see instead the Section on SLS’s IT Group.
Last, the establishment of our Genoa office, where the main Italian port is located, shows how serious we are in our offer of Shipping, Admiralty and Maritime Law services, an interest which is also stressed by Prof. Ballarino academic involvement with Aero-naval Law. Actually, these are areas of the law hardly practiced in our jurisdiction by any major law firms, a regrettable situation which is partly due to their high concentration in Milan, and, to a lesser degree, in Rome, cities which are both quite far from the sea shore.
Studio Legale Sutti is the official contributor for Company Law updates and surveys regarding the Italian jurisdiction to Mondaq Business Briefing, a news service which is accessible on the Web, and to all Lexis-Nexis, Reuters and Dow Jones information services’ users. Many brief texts authored by SLS’s members on the same subject are available there (a free registration is needed to access them). Various specialisations of SLS’s Company-Commercial Law Dept. are discussed in detail in our entries in the relevant Mondaq on-line directories (a free registration is needed to access them), that is, in particular:
