About

Italian fashion house Trussardi was founded in 1911, and has since embarked on a global expansion into the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including opening boutiques in Hong Kong, Moscow and Taiwan. Made up of only two lawyers and a full time support staff member, the legal team has had to develop multiple skills to face urgencies in every aspect of the company’s life. The legal team also has a contract manager who focuses on the drafting and negotiation of the company’s distribution contracts, as well as most of the commercial agreements and support of Trussardi’s foreign subsidiaries. The legal team is led by corporate affairs, legal and compliance manager, Sara Citterio, who is also the company secretary of all companies in the group and focuses on IP strategy and protection, and compliance. ‘Despite the broadening of the responsibilities imposed on the legal team, we saw a decrease in the workforce due to a general staff reduction within the group’. The legal team has consequently made additional efforts in organising the daily activities by providing template forms for a variety of contracts. It has also started a series of meetings with several company teams to illustrate the legislation in order to give colleagues the tools to fully understand a problem from a legal perspective. ‘We encourage continuous education of all members of the team, and we are currently setting up a series of in-house meetings with some of the most outstanding legal professionals to ensure that all of us get quality education’, says Citterio. 2019 was a crucial year for the group, as an investment fund invested in a majority stake of the holding company. ‘It was a real turnaround and the legal team supported the change ensuring continuity from the old to the new management, in addition to the support given during the due diligence and the negotiation times’, explains Citterio.