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Our Roots

That path that made us who we are.

1953

  • Angelo Sutti founds Studio Legale Sutti as an Italian law firm with a focus on company-commercial law and intellectual property & unfair competition.
  • SLS Headquarters are settled in Palazzo Sutti, via Molino delle Armi 4, Milan.
  • Six months after opening SLS in Milan, Angelo Sutti also establishes another office in Trescore Balneario.
  • SLS emerges as a Law Firm specialising in crisis management and dispute resolution 
  • A first secondary base is established in Trescore Balneario for the Bergamo and Brescia judicial district, which will be later relocated in Bergamo, making SLS a multi-office practice.

  • SLS’s Pro Bono Programme is launched with the free advice rendered to the newly established Rose-Blue Cross, a philanthropic entity dedicated to ambulance services for sick and wounded children
  • Angelo Sutti is awarded the title of Knight Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on the initiative of President of the Republic for his professional achievements and for the assistance lent to the legislative process, so becoming the youngest member of the Order.

  • SLS permanent structure expands to four fee-earners and three staff. Private clients services are discontinued.
  • Angelo Sutti is admitted to the Supreme Court Bar, so starting SLS’s vibrant practice in the field of appeals before the Italian Court of Cassation and Conseil d’Etat.
  • At the end of the decade, telex, teletex and telefax communications, along with audioconferencing solutions, are made available to any party wishing to contact Studio legale Sutti.

  • SLS embarks in a radical re-engineering of its production process, puts a PC on every desk and is the first Italian law firm to establish a LAN in its offices, as well as a modem-operated connection between them. Laser printing gives a more refined look to its output, and lead to the in-house publication for more than a decade of a Newsletter addressed to its clients and correspondents., The contemporary media dub SLS “the cyberlaw firm”.
  • The firm established by Dr. Angelo Sutti and his associates becomes a professional partnership regulated by Italian law.
  • SLS’s practice is increasingly involved in international arena, and its members begin  attending AIJA, IBA and UIA congresses, and later of LES and AIPPI.
  • SLS begins interviewing foreign candidates in its recruitment operations. LINK
  • A Labour Law and Related Matters Department LINK is created in its own premises in via Arcivescovado 2, leading in turn to the reorganisation of SLS’s previous practice in a distinct Company-Commercial and Public Business Law Department and  and an Intellectual Property & Competition Department.

1991

  • A new local office is settled in Abbiategrasso in order to offer a closer assistance to clients based in the southern part of the Milanese province and in the Pavia province, under the responsibility of Prof. Simona Cazzaniga   , who is later to become the Firm’s managing partner in the 2010s,
  • SLS starts to participate actively to the life of a number of foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations in Italy.
  • A London representation office   is opened offering services to the local market, especially to English solicitors seeking counsel in Italy.

1992

  • SLS merges with Monti & Partners, another similar practice established in 1927 by Dr. Guido Monti, counsel for the Milan Bar and later dean thereof until his death, focusing on international investments and trade matters, as well as banking and financial law.
  • Stefano Sutti becomes Managing Partner of SLS.
  • A second representation office   is launched in Tokyo, staffed by bilingual personnel, on the wake of a number of successful IP licensing negotiations in the country. In turn, SLS’s Milan office commence a fruitful cooperation with JETRO, the Japanese consulate and the the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Milan       in order to promote its services with the Japanese business community in Italy.
  • SLS starts participating in a number of IT-related EU projects as a member of the network LegIt- Specialists in Legal IT.  OK

1993

  • Marco Monti takes over from Angelo Sutti as Senior Partner.
  • SLS, at the time amongst the early adopters of IBM OS/2 client and server operating systems, cooperates with IBM in the development of a specialised legal vocabulary in Italian for IBM Personal Dictation System/2, the first speech-to-text commercial tool, by contributing its already extensive library of real-world legal texts, duly anonymised, to the project. Stefano Sutti is one of the testimonials for the launch of the product in Italy.
  • Further to the acquisition as a client of a large factoring company specialising in the collection of debts against governmental and other public entities, a large campaign to this effect is launched based inter alia on SLS’ IT infrastructure and experience in bulk instructions management, ultimately leading along the years to the recovery of several billions of Euros from the Italian National Health Service.
  • Videoconferencing  solutions over ISDN are first made available in SLS’s headquarters.

1994

  • SLS becomes the first Italian business law firm to establish a criminal law defence and above all prosecution practice, initially thank to the lateral hire of renown lawyers from specialised firms, a choice otherwise unusual in his history.

1995

  • SLS relocates its headquarters in Palazzo del Monte, Via Montenapoleone 8, Milan. A major social event is held on site, with the attendance of Bar and public authorities,  to celebrate the official opening the prestigious new premises thereof.
  • At the time, more than 10% of SLS fee-earners in Milan are admitted in other jurisdictions other than Italy, have foreign law degrees or are born and educated abroad.
  • Large-scale criminal cases where SLS represents the corporate victims of consumer electronic patent infringements pressing charges and demanding interim relief are discussed in Italian and international press.
  • SLS connects to the Internet.

1996

  • SLS starts offering full-fledged patent & trademark attorney services, thus becoming to all effects a multidisciplinary practice.
  • The number of SLS partners is doubled at once and the recruitment operations are streamlined and intensified.

1997

  • SLS establishes a second representative office in Tokyo, Japan. A number of its partners join the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.
  • SLS starts cooperating with Jetro   and the Japanese Consulate in Italy   and sponsors the conference Ornamental Models and Industrial Design in Italian and Japanese Law held in Jetro offices in Milan and organized by  the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Italy 
  • SLS registers the web site domain name “sutti.com” and establishes its Web site  s
  • SLS sets up an ad hoc team of lawyers   of different expertise and skills aimed at dealing with environmental law issues.

1998

  • An SLS team, with Stefano Sutti and Livia Oglio as leading counsel, represents the International Alliance for Compatible Technologies in the historical proceedings against Microsoft before the Italian antitrust authorities (AGCM). 
  • On the occasion, amongst the substantial media coverage of the initiative, SLS is defined by the Wall Street Journal (on 27/10/1998, in a front-page article) “one of the ten largest independent  law firms in Italy”.
  • SLS opens an Environmental Law Department to offer a complete servie to commercial clients and to cope the recent develpoment in Italian law, which allows for enforchment and rewards, in cases brought by private persons with a legitimate intereste against the decisions of public bodies, to be carried out fully in the administrative courts.

1999

  • SLS, and in particular its Intellectual Property Department   led by Simona Cazzaniga   is elected as the Italian representative of Counterforce, the anti-counterfeiting network of the Paris International Chamber of Commerce.
  • A first antenna is established in Rome   , especially in order to serve the Firm’s needs with regard to clients’ representation before the Italian Court of Cassation  , Conseil d’État, Constitutional Court, Competition Authority (AGCM   and the Lazio Regional Administrative Tribunale (which in spite of its name has country-wide jurisdiction on several matter).
  • SLS’s office in Tokyo makes available in Japan an Italian Counterforce Desk, under the responsibility of the Firm’s IP & Competition Department.
  • SLS Tokyo is admitted as a corporate member of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

2000

  • After contacts with several global suitors interested in a possible merger with SLS are leaked in the international press, the firm publicly announces its decision to remain independent for the foreseeable future.
  • As reported by the Italian media a few prestigious scholars, including the dean of international law studies in Italy, Tito Ballarino , becomes Of Counsel or partners to SLS, supplementing the existing academic involvement of several of its partners and associates. One of them, a supreme court appeal specialist and civil procedure professor, strengthens SLS’s presence in Rome   which is relocated in its existing office, and participates in the legislative committee preparing the procedural reform which is later adopted for corporate and IP disputes.
  • SLS merges with the Genoan firm Studio Pennisi, so establishing in Liguria its first full-fledged regional practice, expanding its involvement in employment law (which is taught at the local university by its head, Prof Giuliano Pennisi   ) and developing maritime and admiralty law services in the framework of its international trade pratice. The merger is celebrated in the terrace of historical Salvaghi Palace in via Garibaldi 10, where the office had been operating since 1948.
  • Further to the agreement reached with a leading Sofia-based law firm active sonce the beginning of the nineties, SLS becomes for all purposes an international practice and starts an expansion in the Balkans with the goal of becoming the main regional firm in that area, ending up as the main independent law prllin the area.  
  • SLS is elected as the first European member of the Global Alliance for e-Commerce Law  
  • SLS is amongst the founders of euroITcounsel, an international circle of specialist lawyers, with strict admission requirements, which promotes the study of IT-related legislations. As such, euroITcounsel is present at the Cebit 2000 in Hannover where on 25 February a member of SLS held a conference on the “Legislative and Regulatory Implementation of the Digital Signature in Italy”.
  • Stefano Sutti becomes a member of the prestigious editorial board of The European Lawyer, the “voice of the legal profession” edited by Patrick Wilkins.

2001

  • SLS new Yugoslavian partner defends former president Slobodan Milosevic before both Yugoslav courts and the Hague tribunal
  • Belgrado
  • SLS estamblishes an office for Monza and Brianza in order to provide closer assistance to the very large number of industrial and commercial operations located there, especially in contentious matters.
  • A reception is organised in the courtyard of SLS Monza office in order to celebrate its opening and offer the best wishes to SLS colleagues who operate it. The event is attended by local authorities, business associations and journalists.
  • A reception is held in SLS Bulgarian office of that time to celebrate the beginning of operations on site and to welcome our new partners and associates. The event is sttended by many local authorities, local colleagues and companies (the Bulgarian National Bank, the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria, the Embassy of Italy, the President of the Sofia Bar, the Bulgarian Court of Cassation, the Sofia Office of the Italian Istituto per il Commercio Estero, the Italian Consulate in Sofia, the US Agency for International Development…).
  • Original Serbian partners’ first contacts with the rest of SLS starts. Quickly SLS becomes the only Serbian law firm represented in Italy, the UK and Japan. The formal announcement of the merger is delayed for some months due to its imminent relocation to the current, new premises.

2002

  • SLS establishes a Latin Desk in Milan, Spanish, Portoguese and Catalan becoming part of its correspondence languages.
  • SLS opens the only Yugoslavian (now Serbian) law firm represented in Italy. A cocktail party is given to celebrate both SLS merger with the commercial practice of both the oldest and largest partnership for the practice of law in the former Yugoslavian Federation, and the opening of the new office. The reception is attended by several Yugoslavian, Italian and other European businessmen, consultants, and organisations, including the Italian Embassy, the Yugoslavian Office of the Italian Istituto per il Commercio Estero, IVECO, Intesa-BCI, Citadel, Technicom, and others. The ceremony is broadcast the next day by the first channel of RTS, the local State-owned TV network, where Mira Adanja-Polak interviews both Stefano Sutti and a former local partner.
  • SLS restructures and makes public its Pro Bono Programme.
  • SLS boosts its Rome presence by acquiring a local public law boutiqur.
  • Owing to its especial focus on IT and TLC law and its direct interest in highly-specialised human resources in this field, SLS (in association with two other leading hi-tech practices) takes the unusual initiative of partcipating in the creation and development, under its own very trademark, of one of the most ambitious Master courses in Law available in Italy. The Master course will take place for the first time in 2003 under the aegis of Omni@media and Italia Lavoro, the educational arm of the Italian Ministry of Employment and Social Policies.
  • Stefano Sutti is appointed as Professor in Business IT Law by the University of Padua for its Master Course on the Internet and lectures for the Postdoctorate Course in Law and Economics of International e-Commerce organised by SCiNT.
  • SLS is the first Italy-headquartered law firm to register its name and logo as a trademark in the EU, in the Balkans and in Japan.
  • The launch of SLS’s business in Romania and the completion of SLS’s plan to become the leading practice in South-Eastern Europe are discussed by the Italian and international media concerned with the international market of legal services.

2003

  • Starting a trend followed in the subsequent months and years by several competitors, SLS announces the establishment of a fourth, distinct, Tax Department   and the extension of its Italian recruitment to commercialisti, CPAs, Steuerberater and experts comptables   . The opening of its central office in Milan, via Bigli 2, approximately a hundred of meters from via Montenapoleone, is celebrated on the
  • SLS celebrates the 50th anniversary from its foundation with a black-tie reception on September 15th in San Francisco, CA, in the charming context of Cesar’s Castle.
  • SLS integrates its Romaninan Law Firm in Bucharest. Vitzman, Webster & Partners
  • Stefano Sutti is appointed leader of the Global Alliance for e-Commerce Law.
  • SLS, in collaboration with Omni@Media, Studio Legale Tonuncci and Studio Legale Imperatore, organises the first Italian residential Master in Information Technology Law which is held in a campus in Orvieto.
  • The end of the half-centenary of Studio Legale Sutti sees a general gathering of all the Firm’s members, staff and of counsel worldwide, with their families and partners, for a week end of convinviality free-climbing and Japanese fencing in the Alps. namely in Piani di Bobbio in Valsassina (  s?)
  • Members of SLS office in Sofia and in Milan cooperate in the preparation, for the Centro Estero Camere di Commercio Lombarde, of the only comprehensive introduction to Bulgarian law for foreign investors that is available in Italian. This and SLS presence on site lead to, inter alia, the invitation of SLS’s members to several Italian conferences and seminars aimed at informing Italian businesses and companies interested in investing or distributing in the country, such as that on 16/09/2003 in Milan on Doing Business in Bulgaria (CECCL) or that on 20/11/2003 in Padua (“Aspetti legali rilevanti per l’attività commerciale italiana in Bulgaria” in Investire ed esportare in Bulgaria, by Unione Industriale di Padova). 
  • SLS sponsores a lecture given by Dr. Nishina in Kitzbühel during the CILS seminar of 18-21/01/2003 (International Trade Marks, Patents, and Copyrights) on “The Employees’ Inventions in Italy and Japan: A Comparative Survey”.
  • SLS tax practice, which used to be included in our Company-Commercial Law Dept., becomes the province of a newly-established Tax Department.
  • Tito Ballarino is the director of the only existing European Master Course on International Litigation under the aegis of the University of Padua. Other SLS members play a key role as well.
  • SLS represents the Alliance as well in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, and is appointed to the prestigious position of world Coordinating Member – hardly an everyday occurence in any similar organisation for continental-Europe law firms.

2004

  • SLS launches Knomos, the first Open Source, multilingual, multiplatform, location-independent integrated software solution for professional firms.
  • SLS switches to Linux all its server and client IT infrastructure.
  • SLS is the first Italy-headquartered law firm to register its name and logo as a trademark in the EU, in the Balkans and in Japan. Doppio
  • Three new partners are appointed in SLS Sofia. The office transfers from the original location to a new larger one at the current address.
  • SLS with the collaboration of Lombardy Foreign Trade Center, Centro Estero Camere Commercio Lombarde, ancd Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura di Pavia, publishes “Guida Informativa Legale Romania”, a compendium dealing with all about law in Romania.

2005

  • SLS is the first international firm to establish its own operation in Croatia, in the form of a local branch of SLS Ltd. Its office in Zagreb is not the fruit of a merger, but is created from scratch by two very well-known local practitioners, who bring to the new venture respectively a managing experience in an existent Croatian business law firm, and an extensive corporate background, in addition to an existing international client basis, to which the full range of SLSservices are offered. This completes SLS coverage of the region.

2006

  • Further to the Italian liberalisation of multidisciplinary professional practices, SLS expands its Environment services by establishing a team of EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) managers, which provides clients operating productive facilities in Italy with technical assistance regarding environmental audits and compliance, environmental remediation, compliance with waste disposals regulations, and are certified as RSPP (responsabili servizio prevenzione e protezione) with respect to the provisions of DLgs 626/1996 concerning safety in the workplace.
  • SLS in colaboration with Banca di Credito Cooperativo of Fano organizes in Fano the meeting “Difendersi e competere nell’era della globalizzazione: la posizione delle piccole e medie imprese italiane”, dealing with how the small and middle-sized Italian business can defend themselves and compete in globalization era.

2007

  • Stefano Sutti is appointed in the committee of “wise men” in charge of elaborating the new Regional Constitution of Lombardy.
  • SLS incorporates Tamburro Law Firm in Rome. Tamburro, founded in 1948, is well known for its litigation business. MAH
  • SLS sponsors and provides legal support to Erbil Iraqui Kurdistan’s Italianexpo.

2008

  • SLS start its startup dedicated assistance programme “SLS Nextgen”
  • SLS is the official law firm of ItalianExpo Iraq 2008. 

2009

  • SLS presence in Rome is substantially further grown by welcoming the team of Luca Valentinotti, who becomes at the same time the head of SLS’s practice in Rome, and relocates to SLS current premises.

2010

  • SLS launches its new website embracing 2.0 paradigm.
  • SLS opens a Russian Desk in Milan and Sofia.

2012

  • As a part of its Pro Bono Programme SLS includes legal assistance for the construction of the first Senegalese facility entirely dedicated to cutting-edge gynecology and obstetrics services.
  • Winning a beauty contest organised by the Savers Committee for the “Greek Bond Affaire” SLS is appointed to evaluate and to adopt all possible initiatives aimed at protecting Italian private investors involved in the default of the Greek public debt.
  • SLS relocates for the region of Bergamo and Brescia from Trescore Balneario to downtown Bergamo, and puts it under the responsibility of Paola Cornaro.
  • SLS, in collaboration with Rouben Karapetian, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Geopolitics and Auxiliary Sciences, organizes the conference “The new Near East: what has changed after the ‘Springs’” to discuss the evolution followed by the revolts and the effects they have had, so far, on the countries concerned as well as on the Mediterranean and Near-Eastern regions.

2013

SLS launches Litiscutum a product aimed at planning costs and means inherent in the judicial and extrajudicial defense of the company in disputes and proceedings and other crisis management activities.

  • SLS, in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Studies in Geopolitics and Auxiliary Sciences, organizes the conference “Italy and Russia: business opportunities”.
  • Stefano Sutti becomes a member and the official counsel of the committeee established by the national board and the social security bodies of Italian chartered accountants for the setup of a public subscription-based category bank, BancaEsperta. 
  • SLS inaugurates its new office in Venice with a cocktail party

2014

  • Livia Oglio is appointed Vice-President of “Arbitrando“, an Association created in 2011 among practitioners in domestic and international arbitration with a view to promote arbitration as an effective and widely accessible dispute resolution tool.
  • SLS Pro Bono Programme promotes the charity “Jazz Side Story – ‘Overwhelming love’” to raise funds for or the construction of “Divine Providence”, a maternity and pediatric hospital in Senegal.

2015

  • SLS hostes in its Milan Headquarters an interdisciplinary meeting entitled “Practical solutions for optimizing the tax burden through the Patent Box and related laws”.

2016

  • Stefano Sutti becomes Senior Partner.
  • Simona Cazzaniga becomes SLS’s Managing Partner. She is one of the first women reaching such a position like this in Italian Law Firms.
  • The prestigious Italian newspaper Il Sole-24Ore officially thanks the SLS for its collaboration with the Sole-24Ore Business School, publishing the SLS brand with that of all the other entities and companies permanently contributing to its activity.
  • In the framework of its long-standing cooperation with the Korean Trade Center in Italy SLS’s IP Department welcomes in its Milan office a commercial mission organised by the Trade Ministry of the Republic of  Korea interested in approaching the Italian market with their foodstuffs.
  • A delegation of MPs of the Trade and Industry Commission of the Finnish Parliament and of businessmen meet with Stefano Sutti and Livia Oglio in order to discuss the evolution of the Italian legal framework for investment and trade opportunities, with special regard to energy and health services.
  • Stefano Sutti meets in Tehran with Dr. Isa Kantalari, vice-president of the Republic of Iran.

2017

  • SLS Company-Commercial and Business Public Law Department’s operations are relocated in Casa Toscanini,  the building once inhabited by the famous orchestra director  maestro Arturo Toscaninippppi.
  • In Senegal, Divine Providence Hospital, being part of SLS Pro Bono Programme, is finished and handed over to Lifenet Onlus.
  • As part of its Pro Bono Programme SLS is leader in “Laboratory for the reuse of assets confiscated from the Mafia” Project, in collaboration with Politecnico and Università Statale of Milan.
  • SLS sls includes support for the cultural activity of the Stravinsky Russkie Motivi association in its Probono Programme.
  • SLS celebrates 150 years of Toscanini’s birth with a cocktail in its Company-Commercial and Business Public Law Department in Toscanini’s House.
  • SLS, in collaboration with Milan University, organizes “Design Law. USA-Italia-UE a confronto” a seminair aimed at comparing the different legal approaches and solutions in the USA, in Italy, and in the EU regarding design.
  • SLS opens a dedicated chennel on Youtube

2018

  • SLS opens a new office in Berlin.
  • Sebastiano Maurizio Messina (SLS Verona) organizes the first Master in “International Trade Law and Economics”, in collaboration with Statal University of Verona.
  • As part of its Pro Bono Programme SLS provides legal assistance for the release from caracat Grum.
  • Eepresentatives of the vape supply chain assign SLS the task of carrying out all the legal actions necessary to protect them against the Customs and Monopolies Agency.
  • Stefano Sutti, representing the Russian multinational customer KrioRus, introduces the “Immortality” section, at the opening of Anatomy Expo “Real Bodies, beyond the human body”.
  • SLS Roman offices organize “Omnes viae Romam ducunt”, a cocktail party for the participants of the International Bar Association Annual Conference 2018.
  • SLS begins a collaboration with Ealixir Privacy Services.
  • SLS assists a Molodovian client against two of the largest banks in Italy with a win-win solution internationally recogized as a success story by TAGLaw network. 
  • SLS opens an account on Instagram

2019

  • SLS statrs its international collaboration with Minamiaoyama M’s Law Accounting Firm in Tokyo.
  • SLS’s Rome office organizes Omne viae Romam ducunt open-house cocktail for TAG Alliances members attending IBA.
  • SLS opens a page on VorKontact, Russian social network
  • Tzveteline Dimitrova-Uzunova, responsible for SLS activity in Bulgaria, is a candidate as mayor of the Liulin region of the city of Sofia.
  • Simona Cazzaniga and her IP Dept team translates in Englis Italian Code of Industrial Proprerty – English-Italian version” for Les Italy.

2020

  • SLS opens an account on MeWe, Chinese social network
  • SLS provides pro bono the necessary legal assistance to “d.kids disegnami una mascherina” Project.
  • As part of its Pro Bono ProgrammeSLS launches the SLSCovid-19 campaign aimed at providing free legal advice to people and companies in difficulty due to the epidemic.
  • A SLS team is included in the committee set up for the dprizekids edition: “d.kids, draw me a mask”, providing the necessary legal assistance pro bono.
  • Sebastiano Maurizio Messina (SLS Verona) organizes the second Master in “International Trade Law and Economics”, in collaboration with Statal University of Verona.
  • SLS and Simona Cazzaniga promotes the task force of lawyers, accountants, politicians, designers promoting Milan as as the official candidate in the competition to host the Unified Patent Court.
  • SLS promotes an initiative with the Order of Accountants and Tax Auditors for the training of expert witnesses
  • As part of its Probono Programme, SLS is appointed official counselof Istituto Iaido Italia, an Italian association bringing together people passionate and practicing Iaido, the ancient martial art of the Japanese sword.
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