About

Daniele Parla is head of corporate and investment banking for Italy at the banking giant UniCredit, having previously acted as Credit Suisse’s Italian head of legal investment banking. Taking charge of a team of 20 lawyers (a noticeable increase from when he started, and in line with the acknowledgement of the teams value to business lines), he assists in providing legal support to the investment banking and corporate commercial business of UniCredit across Italy. Parla’s function utilises a number of methods to deal with the challenges the high-profile banking group faces, this ‘mix of tools’ includes the use of external firms, internalisation of work and secondees to assess business needs and provide effective response to them. This hasn’t been easy though, Parla explains that whilst it was a ‘unique opportunity’ to create his department from scratch, it was a huge challenge. His enjoyment of the role comes from taking decisions and being right at the heart of transactions, and as the leader of his team he feels required to ‘uphold values’ and provide the ‘backbone’. Taking an analytical approach, Parla’s methods are closely aligned to the assessment of business needs and giving appropriate and effective solutions in response. In using external counsel, Parla stresses that firms shouldn’t just give advice on the ‘pure legal aspects’ preferring them to look at company needs in terms of the products and business structure, where there is a ‘complex reality’.