Team size: Four 

Major legal advisers: Legance, Gattai, Minoli, Partners, Watson Farley&Williams (Italy and Greece), L&B Partners, Studio Sticchi Damiani, Blake, Cassels & Graydon, and Wolf Theiss (Romania) 

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?  

Within a contest aimed at selecting external law firms for the most important M&A transaction, we have developed a system with uniform tender conditions, standardization of the terms and conditions of the offers, attribution of scores to proceed with the selection of legal advisors based on objective parameters and automatic evaluation mechanisms. 

How would you assess the impact of new technologies on the legal landscape in Italy, and what measures would you propose to leverage these technologies while ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations?  

As of today, I believe that the use of technologies is not yet fully widespread in legal departments in Italy. Often, technologies are mostly used for activities having instrumental nature rather than in the legal activity itself (e.g., diffusion of tools of digital signature, legal research tools, etc.). However, I believe technology is critical to the transformation of the LD and it might have a positive impact on the degree of diligence ordinarily required to the lawyers. I am favourable to employ high-tech tools (like artificial intelligence systems, machine learning etc) as they will be able to support the activity of the legal departments in different contexts (predictive analysis of the results of a legal proceeding, document drafting and review systems, due diligence activities, etc.). 

I see some advantages in terms of reducing the costs of routine work, increasing the quality and consistency of documents, managing the workload efficiently, sharing know-how, ensuring correct legal risk management. On the other hand, the need to adopt such instruments in compliance with the relevant law, it will require new regulations aimed to grant, depending on a certain risk assessment, that they are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and respectful of the environment.  

What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in in Italy?  

Technological evolution in the renewable energy sector. The strong development in installations of RES plants globally has pushed technological development in the photovoltaic sector, making available to the market a set of advanced technological solutions, compared to the first phase of development of the last decade, and now considered market ready.  

Agri-voltaic, as land is the most crucial resource for the energy transition, all new PV is agri-voltaic, a system configuration allowing for a better reconciliation of the needs of the production of electricity from renewable sources with sustainability issues.  

Legal and regulatory framework in continuous change in relation to renewable energy in Italy. Unfortunately, this is a negative trend, and the associated uncertainty represents one of the main limitations to the diffusion of RES. The improvement of the permitting performance does not depend on simplifications attempts that are creating a very high disorder and are changing rules at a faster rate than permitting procedures.  

Process of connection to the electricity grid and future criticalities. This too is a trend that will bring negative consequences: the growing presentation of projects powered by renewable energies will – just virtually – saturate grid capacity in the short term. This is the consequence of the easiness and relatively cheapness with which, under the current system, a grid connection can be booked: things are going to change. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?  

Despite it is difficult to foresee of the key development of the General Counsel (GC) work modalities, at least some crucial points must be considered. Firstly, re-thinking the role of the legal department within the corporate organisation so that it can combine the role of risk and compliance manager and being part of the business strategy of the company. This passes through the integration between the GC and LD with the other business departments so that the formers can play a central role in supporting the corporate strategy of the organization. 

Secondly, increasing the utilisation of technological solutions to optimise recurring activities, increase efficiency, reduce costs and create tangible and measurable value for the company. This in a corporate context more often characterized by the speed of business and transversal competences which are required to in-house lawyers (industrial, commercial, etc). 

Lastly, improving the procurement of new alternative legal services from organizations other than traditional law firms, especially for those legal activities which might be automatized: this would allow an efficient cost control depending on the value of that specific activity, by granting cost transparency.