Tito Ballarino (http://www.sutti.com/ballarino.htm), Of Counsel to Studio Legale Sutti and Professor of International Law at the University of Padua, the second oldest Law School in the world, has been appointed Coordinator of the first Master Course on International Litigation at the same University.
This Masters is a European first. Actually, most available post-graduate course deal with transactional or specialised issues, and especially in Italy are more often aimed at training in-house lawyers than future counsel; this is what persuaded Studio Legale Sutti to sponsor heavily an initiative which is expected to be a great success, and also to attract a number of foreign candidates, most classes being held in English and French.
"Since the French Revolution, in the law schools of civil-law countries there has been a widespread belief that advocacy and strategy are something which cannot (our should not) be taught", notes Stefano Sutti, Studio Legale Sutti's managing partner. "It is time to reverse this misconception, and to make lawyers more conversant with new presentation and persuasion techniques, profiting from the real-world experience of those who focus on what remains the very core of the legal profession".
In fact, Studio Legale Sutti has always strived to present itself as the Italian firm the most oriented towards dispute resolution, and a significant part of the teaching staff for the course will come from this same firm. Apart from Tito Ballarino, who has assigned himself the classes on EU Courts Proceedings and on Conflict of Laws, and his daughter, Eleonora Ballarino (Civil Procedure), the Board of the Coordinators of the Masters will also include Stefano Sutti, managing partner of the firm, and internationally recommended for Italian litigation by the Guide to the World Leading Litigators (Legalmediagroup) and by European Legal Experts (Legalease), who will teach Strategy and Comparative procedure; other SLS members of the faculty will include Simona Cazzaniga (Global Patent Enforcement), Livia Oglio (Arbitration), and Giampaolo Corabi (Tax Litigation).
Other prestigious teachers who have confirmed their participation include Leonardo Bellodi, head of the ENI delegation with the European Union, Andrea Bonomi, professor of the University of Lausanne, Massimo Cartella of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Nerina Boschiero of the Italian International Law Society, Ermanno Cappa, director of the legal office of the Regional European Bank and president of the Italian Association of In-house Lawyers and Luigi Mari, head of the University of Urbino's Law faculty.
Applications for enrolments are to be made by the 10th of December 2003, after which the selection of candidates will commence, with a maximum of sixty places being offered. The course is to begin on 26 January 2004. The Masters will count for 70 university credit points in the Italian academic system.
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