About

The legal team at construction company Rizzani de Eccher is staffed with 15 experienced professionals including 13 lawyers and two engineers who also partake in managing contracts and disputes. Known for constantly expanding, the team has increased by five units allocating some of its new legal entities around the world, in the USA, the Gulf, Australia and Moscow – some of the most critical areas for the business. With operations in more than 30 countries and over €500m of ongoing projects in Qatar alone, the team must be internationally savvy. Simone Bagnariol, general counsel of the group admits that they are the ‘first office involved in case of problems in projects around the world. The key approach in all of these cases is to multitask and to find a possible opportunity of business’. As the first point of contact, the team has gained a great deal of respect from business partners, with shareholders and the board considering the impact of the legal team at every stage; ‘no agreement is signed or circulated if it is not blessed by the legal team’. In a recent transaction, the legal team started an arbitration against a state of the Gulf, closing a very complex transaction with one minority shareholder of a subsidiary who started simultaneously 9 proceedings and also negotiated a €1.5bn contract with a Russian Bank for the development of a commercial area and a stadium. Bagnariol concedes the team overcome the aforementioned challenges with a great deal of passion and cooperation. ‘All our lawyers feel part of a team and they do not hesitate to involve myself or other colleagues in their possible problems. They really feel part of the problem and not as providers of a simple legal advice’, he says.