As Studio Legale Sutti’s current structure originated from an Italian law firm, it will be of little surprise that most of our personnel is Italian, admitted to the Bar in Italy, with Italian law degrees. Some of the Firm’s current members, however, are qualified as patent attorneys, patent liaison agents, or commercialisti (tax advisors / Steuerberater / accountants / auditors / business consultants); while others are admitted in foreign jurisdictions (as are of course most of our colleagues based in our Bulgarian, Serbian and Romanian offices); or have MBA or engineering degrees, or may have attended a foreign law school and/or received part of their legal training abroad.
While it is not unusual for an Italian international law firm that most of its lawyers have graduated cum laude in top law schools, are fluent in a couple of foreign languages and have read for postgraduate degrees, a specific feature of Studio Legale Sutti is the academic, teaching and research activities of many of its members – for which they are often invited to lecture at public conferences and seminars. In particular, many SLS members hold teaching and research positions at universities, Bar committees and post-graduate courses – namely in the fields of International Law. International Trade Law, Intellectual Property, European Community Law, Civil Procedure, Aero-naval Law, International Taxation, Employment Law, IT Law – with the active encouragement and support of the Firm.
This is considered a part of our investment in human resources, and human resources are in our view the Firm’s main asset; an asset which we try to protect and enhance by taking care of (and generously financing) their professional updating and studies – and, before that, by carefully looking after the completion of their legal training, in-house and abroad.
At the same time, SLS’s approach to the practice of law is also quite unique in that it strives to build above all brand-loyalty in its client base, and de-emphasises the traditional role of a client’s personal trust in an individual lawyer in favour of trust in the team and in its philosophy, spirit and strict selection and quality procedures.
In spite of the fact that we recruit most of our new members straight out of law school, lateral hires being comparatively rare, this strategy has produced a high level of loyalty to the Firm by its members during Studio Legale Sutti’s history.
This may well have contributed to the fact, rare indeed amongst Italian firms, that – while inevitably along the years some of our members retired or died or resigned – SLS has never known a split-off since its establishment in 1953.
In fact, SLS considers involvement and loyalty on a par with competence, acquisition of goodwill, and performance; and fosters an ésprit du corps among its partners, associates and staff in all possible ways. Thus, they learn to participate in an organisational philosophy where, in broad terms,
- the client’s interests come first;
- then come the Firm’s interests;
- then one’s own;
- then the system and the community within which the Firm operates;
- and then the fact of obtaining intellectual satisfaction and having fun in the practice of law.
Of course, our members are happiest when all of these goals may be pursued simultaneously; but the order in which they are mentioned here clearly indicates our priorities and corresponds to our value ladder.
If you would like to know more about the Firm’s present human resources (including biographies, spoken languages, areas of practice, degrees, memberships, personal achievements, etc.), you may wish to consult our entry in the Martindale-Hubbell, which is usually reasonably updated, either on the Web, through Lexis-Nexis, or in its paper and Cd-Rom editions. Among other directory entries which currently list SLS members are the paper edition of The International Law List (L. Corper – Mordaunt, London), or the multilingual Simons Europäisches Anwaltsverzeichnis (also available on paper and on Cd-Rom, IPR Verlag). Our members’ names are also easily accessible on the International Correspondence Lawyers Web site and in the directory of the World Intellectual Property Network.
Please note that the data reported in these sources may not be up-to-date, and that some of the links above point to the page of the relevant directory search engine, as in several sites it necessary to perform manual searches each time in order to access the information required.
The biographies or personal details of well-known practitioners who are partners or of counsel to Studio Legale Sutti, especially those who hold academic positions, may also be independently accessible on the Web on their personal Home Pages or elsewhere (see for instance those of Simona Cazzaniga, Tito Ballarino and Giuliano Pennisi), often in a more extensive form than the entries contained in professional directories; or again at the end of many of their publications.
Lastly, further information on our members’ identity, achievements, skills, admissions, specialisations, spoken languages, personal memberships, possible temporary secondments, etc., may also be requested directly from the Firm by e-mail, or via any other communication channel.
New colleagues, our selection criteria, partners’ and associates’ specific appointments and roles, and our members’ personal achievements, are routinely discussed in the Firm’s Newsletter, which we send to our clients and correspondents on a regular basis.
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Finally, we believe that it may occasionally be of interest to know not only the names, curricula and biographies of SLS’s fee earners, but also those of our clerks, i.e., the staff members with specific non-legal responsibilities (e.g., accounting, information services and communications, security, marketing,…) and those who have direct contacts with clients and suppliers.
We are therefore among the few Italian firms which publicly disclose the data concerned, which are again available in our Martindale Hubbell entry, and in other publications.
The recruitment of clerks, as the recruitment of staff in general and of fee-earners other than lawyers, is discussed in the section Recruitment/Other Personnel.
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All our members and clerks, anywhere based, can be easily contacted through our central switchboard, and our central e-mail address. You can find in the appropriate sections of this site further details discussing how to contact through personal extensions and mobile phones, personal e-mail addresses. as well as through emergency 24/7 contact procedures.
