Studio Legale Sutti (SLS), which was the first member of the Global Alliance for e-Commerce Law in Europe and is the current representative of the organisation in Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, has been appointed as its Coordinating Member, following in such role the founding US firm, Davis Wright Tremaine.
"We were very honoured to accept our the leading position in the Global Alliance for e-Commerce Law, something which is not exactly an everyday occurrence for a continental-Europe firm in any such organisation", says SLS's managing partner, Stefano Sutti. "This is even more important to us since the Alliance is not your umpteenth and boring law-firm referral network. In fact, the Alliance likes to present itself as a knowledge-pool venture among top specialists in jurisdictions which are or are becoming strategical to e-business operations, a venture organised around a business model which resembles closely - albeit only internally - that of Open Source software development.
Hence, even though membership is in principle restricted to one firm per jurisdiction to limit obvious conflicts of interest among members, and member firms are more likely than not to be working together in international instructions concerning the subject matter, participation to the Alliance does not otherwise affect each firm's international strategy, and can be considered both as an *added value to its members' existing practices*, and as a *quality trademark*, permanently certified through peer recognition".
These two features appear crucial in e-business matters, which by definition involve international, or rather global, legal issues, and therefore require a eminently specialised, credibly multi-jurisdictional approach from legal advisors. Among Studio Legale Sutti's short-term plans there are the completion of the Alliance's territorial coverage in Europe and the further improvement of the technical and procedural backbones of its day-by-day operations.
The Alliance is currently represented in the following jurisdictions: Argentina (M&M Bomchil Abogados), Australia (Clayton Utz) Brazil (Castro, Barros, Sobral), Bulgaria (Studio Legale Sutti), Canada (Fraser Milner Casgrain), Hong Kong (Johnson Stokes & Master), India (Kochhar & Co.), Ireland (LK Shields), Israel (Shiboleth, Yisraeli), Japan (Asahi & Koma), Malaysia (Skrine), Mexico (Goodrich, Riquelme y Asociados), Philippines (Romulo, Mabanta, Buenaventura, Sayoc & De Los Angeles), Portugal (Barrocas & Alves Pereira), Romania (Studio Legale Sutti), Serbia & Montenegro (Studio Legale Sutti), Singapore (Rodyk & Davidson), Spain (Batalla Abogados), United States (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP).
The Web site of the Alliance is at http://www.globalalliancelaw.com. Studio Legale Sutti is, according to most international sources, one of the main independent law firms in Italy. A 128 fee earners-strong, full-service business practice established in 1953 and active in London since 1992, it has domestic offices in Milan, Rome, Genoa, Bergamo-Brescia and Monza. Especially well-known in the high-tech, pharmaceutical and brand-name product sectors, SLS has a special focus on servicing foreign lawyers' needs related to the Italian jurisdiction - which nowadays accounts for one third of its turnover -, with an emphasis on M&A, IP, and contentious work. For more information, see http://www.sutti.com.