There’s a new breed of Italian in-house lawyers. They are multilingual, highly skilled and global in outlook. Anthony Paonita reports
It is a warm spring afternoon in Rome. A group of corporate counsel have gathered for lunch at Gusto, a high-concept Asian fusion restaurant just blocks from the fashionable Via Condotti. At first, it looks like a typical gathering of Italian lawyers. The men wear dark suits; the women, tasteful dresses. They greet each other formally with handshakes and they are all carrying BlackBerrys, pulling them out occasionally to discreetly scan for new email. As the meal proceeds, the lawyers address each other with the familiar tu, even though they are not close friends – something that would have been unthinkable not so long ago. And they flip easily between English and Italian, the choice of language dependent on what they want to say.
