“In some ways the US firms have had to do things differently in Italy because they have been left with no choice: the UK firms have already merged with the top Italian practices,” says Michael Immordino, managing partner of Latham & Watkins’ Italian operation.
With the exception of Willkie Farr & Gallagher and White & Case, US law firms that have entered the Italian legal market during the past few years have opened small practices and tended to focus on US law. The strategy and approach of the US firms appears, at face value, inherently different to their UK London-based counterparts.
