ACTIVITIES FOR BUSINESSES
Ongoing business-oriented legal consulting
Special characteristics of our services
Any business would want a legal expert who is so well versed in its internal workings that he or she could intervene in every negotiation, every contract, every claim, in a timely manner and always adding value. In fact, he or she could be so up-to-date that he or she could offer guidance in advance, even before any formal action is required. Wouldn’t it be comforting to know, in real time, the possibilities for action according to applicable law in order to manage meetings and negotiations, to evaluate the room one has for manoeuvre, based on strategies that have already been studied, and to receive balanced advice on the real-life opportunities and risks of the business?
A legal advisor who would make this possible would not only be well versed in the law and in the management of legal and administrative proceedings but would also be well-versed regarding the type of suppliers and clients with whom the business interacts, the sensitivity of the relationships involved, as well as the management of related issues, uncollected debts, and the negotiations to be conducted. The deep understanding of the business’ objectives would allow him or her to get involved proactively, suggesting changes in contractual arrangements that might be strategically critical; additionally, such deep understanding would generally increase the effectiveness of his or her evaluation of each specific case that would come up in the day-to-day events of the client’s business.
However, this is legal consulting, and not science fiction: to be more precise, it is “ongoing consulting”. With an ongoing consultancy agreement with a qualified legal advisor, expertise in the field of law is combined with familiarity with the commercial and productive world of the client. The drafting of commercial contracts, the management of problems with clients and suppliers, the close attention to reaching an amicable solution to disputes, are the focus of such productive collaboration; the avoidance of traps and the prevention of difficulties in the terms of the agreements and the activities in which the company is involved, the identification of the debtor’s assets that can be attached in order to efficiently and realistically collect debts, represent the unique value added by an ongoing consultancy arrangement with the client.
The Cascio & -Ferraro way of doing things
The Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro assures the utmost punctuality and accuracy in the management of each and every ongoing consulting relationship. The Client establishes a direct relationship with one of the Firm’s partners and can take advantage of the support of the other talented lawyers affiliated with the firm who have acquired valuable expertise in the relevant industry and field of law. The continuity of information flows ensures a constant update on the details of each activity, as well as a comprehensive view of the business’ organization and value generation. This highly practical work arrangement allows for timeliness and accuracy: the right solution at the right time in order to bring success to the Client’s efforts.
Our ongoing legal consultancy also includes activities related to credit recovery: the difficulties that late payments cause in business’ cash flow are a very common experience for Italian companies [link to “Credit Recovery” page]. The familiarity with the daily management of business life ensures taking timely action in sending reminders when invoices are due. In case of continuous, repeated delays by the debtor, the Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro puts into action the appropriate legal tools to enforce the Client’s rights. The extent of such tools and proceedings provided as part of the Firm’s legal assistance is agreed upon in advance every year, in order to plan out and limit costs, based on each client’s available means and actual risks. The package therefore includes credit recovery efforts, such as court payment orders, injunctions, third-party asset foreclosures, as well as applications for the recognition of debts and related liabilities. It also includes the later litigation portion (if necessary) regarding all issues that the Firm’s advises the Client on (with rates agreed in advance). The Firm’s continuous consultancy service provides an advantage in the event of unsettled legal disputes that end up in court, due to our attorneys’ earlier proactive sensitivity, from the outset to everything potentially useful as evidence at a later trial. “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (“If you want peace, prepare for war”) is a motto very much applicable to pre-litigation efforts to resolve a dispute. In such case, it is (of course) better to be on the side of those who are well-prepared, from the beginning.
The distinctive features of the Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro
The Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro has gained experience in various industries, including insurance and pensions, fashion, kitchen manufacturing, lighting, transport and engineering. It has also become a point of reference for foreign companies entering into distribution arrangements with Italian companies (for Italian products in their home countries, but with contracts governed by Italian law). Foreign companies are accustomed to so-called “self-regulatory” contracts, basing the commercial relationship exclusively on the terms included in the final signed agreement, following shared international practices based on Anglo-American contractual approaches. However, they fail to realize that contracts governed under Italian law are also subject to other principles and terms included in the Italian Civil Code, as well as other special laws. Also in this case, therefore, the legal counsel, who knows the Italian regulatory system and the experience of the company from the inside out, becomes truly essential for a correct preparation of the distribution contract. Such counsel’s function is to bring to bear the skills and knowledge that foreign management (and foreign counsel) lack, and to get involved in advance to avoid critical issues that often arise due to the differences of mentality and perspective between the Italian system and other legal systems. Our expertise in legal matters, enriched by decades of litigation practice, is accompanied by sensitivity to proper cultural mediation efforts. In order to be able to carry out this task effectively, technical preparation and vertical specialization in the law are not enough: it is also necessary to have wide-ranging knowledge gained through extensive experience and a certain dose of empathy in managing cross-border human relations. Indeed, this is the contribution that truly sets apart the Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro, with its years of experience, from the rest of the Milanese legal market.
Not just ongoing legal advice
It is difficult to quantify the aggregated value of the disputes that have been prevented through the provision of ongoing legal consultancy arrangement, or of the legal violations that have been avoided. However, the significance of this type of ongoing “vigilant” relationship also lies in the greater freedom from the unexpected arising of legal problems large and small, and the increased ability to focus organizational resources on the business goals of commercial and financial growth.
Privacy
The new world of marketing
More than a century ago one of the pioneers of marketing, John Wanamaker, protested that, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half it is.” This complaint still holds true for traditional forms of advertising, but recent decades have introduced several innovative models for promoting one’s services or products, especially via digital channels. The feature that distinguishes these more efficient modes of communication is their more focused profiling of contact methods and the persuasion strategies that they adopt. The targeted recipients of information are identified using a degree of personalization that is often quite advanced, and the latest conversational technologies customize the content of the message almost on a person-by-person basis. In this way, communicative effectiveness is maximized via an ongoing refinement process whose success can be measured, and whose effects can be improved on in an increasingly “scientific” way.
The truth about the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
European legislation protecting privacy appears to significantly interfere with the new idyllic romance that appears to have formed between businesses and advertising / marketing. Reporting on the subject is full of gaps and innuendo, rather than accuracy and facts, instead aiming to exaggerate the GDPR’s restrictive nature.
To the contrary, while it is true that the possible imposition of sanctions resulting from privacy violations should lead businesses to be cautious and obtain initial and ongoing legal advice on the subject, competent legal guidance aimed at fulfilment of its regulatory requirements indeed provides businesses with a great opportunity to efficiently reorganize their marketing strategies, ranging from defining goals to managing the professionals who will be involved in carrying them out successfully.
The costs related to this transition are concentrated in the early stages of the process. This is the time when you need to design the new marketing structure, understanding what types of customer data are being recorded, stored and tracked, and how it will be used for future promotional efforts. At the same time, you need to survey available tools for tracking, analyzing and planning marketing campaigns, as well as deciding which people in the firm’s organization will be responsible for overseeing the safekeeping, updating and use of sensitive information about the business’ communications stakeholders.
The efficient use of marketing
The modernization of marketing coordination and development efforts therefore entails properly reflecting on the organizational and commercial structure of the company: evaluating contact opportunities and potential new business development are put together in a more formal plan in which the final added-value consulting work of the Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro is carried out. The value of the Firm’s support involves methodically analyzing the preliminary information, and then using such to implement a process of transitioning towards the new marketing structure to be reflected in the legal documentation. These steps, taken together, permit the business decisionmakers to increase their knowledge the company value that needs to be communicated to the public, the targeted recipients of such promotional efforts, the methods to both measure success and optimize marketing campaigns effectiveness and, of course, the expected results.
Data management tools
However, the issue of privacy does not only affect the relationship between the company and the general public, where current or potential customers are located. Relationships also arise with all those who have a collaborative or subordinate working relationship with the company, and who are therefore immersed in a daily flow of data exchange with the company’s human resources function. This information traffic must be surveyed and classified, in order to regulate each of its components according to the requirements of applicable law, and to establish who the contacts are for their management, protection guarantees and access to the contents that are being traced, as well as the duration of the storage of such data.
In recent years, it is not only marketing that has undergone a profound transformation in methods and applications that have revolutionized it. The introduction of digital devices has brought about an evolution in the work environment that has had an equally disruptive impact on the principles and processes impacting business management. Staff access is recorded using electronic tools that encode input and output signals into a few bits, easy to consult and available for low-cost storage for potentially on a permanent basis. However, in addition to company security badges, people can also be tracked through via digital logs connected to their devices, from mobile phones to laptops and tablets. Very often, employees themselves spontaneously report their whereabouts through social media positing and disclose their personal information via their private accounts. According to Ancient Greek writer, Heraclitus, “Nature loves to hide”. However, times have changed, and contemporary humanity seems to be obsessed with a certain passion for exhibitionism, even to his or her own detriment. The activation of tracking devices, the access and consultation of the information accessible, are all subject to extensive documented regulation. We truly are walking along a precipice where it is easy to fall from Heraclitus’ hidden nature to Orwell’s all-monitored society.
Smart working in the Covid and the post-Covid worlds
Recent years have seen significant growth in issues connected to the complexities of technological development (including as well the legal aspects) and its implications for the management of smart working. According to the Smart Working Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, the share of employees working from home in 2019 either continuously or occasionally was around 4.8% of the total; however, in 2020, Covid-19 containment strategies led many (if not most) companies to resort extensively to this form of employment arrangement. During the first lockdown of March 2020, 6.6 million workers in Italy were remotely working. The “new normal” that is facilitating the incorporation of smart working more permanently into companies’ business models is expected to result in 5.3 million individuals working in some way from home, representing about 25% of the country’s working population. 54% of companies are ready to regularize more “agile” or “flexible” ways of working [link to: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/smart-working-54percento-imprese-continuera-usarlo-ADzchDUB], with the resulting need to revise the employment and collaboration agreements, as well as the need to develop specific, customized policies for data management relating to company network remote access, mechanisms for verifying employee compliance with contractual and other commitments, as well as defining the roles of those tasked with supervising the application of such rules.
Streamlining the business enterprise
A famous graphic novel by Alan Moore asked, “Who will watch the watchmen?” (quoting Roman author, Juvenal, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” in Latin from his “VI Satire”). First and foremost, this task falls to the clauses of the company’s privacy policy and the work of streamlining the goals and processes behind them. The ability to clearly identify the relationship between aims and means produces benefits for all and is the primary guarantee of compliance with the arrangements by all parties involved. At the same time, transparency in working methods, in how they interact, and in the manner in which results are measured, leads to value that distinguishes the company from its competitors in the marketplace. In a world that is increasingly concerned with sustainability, attention to corporate social responsibility (and especially their ethical codes), the care dedicated to privacy is a central feature of institutional communications and an important consideration in the eyes of customers, who are increasingly sensitive to those companies who have invested time and resources in it.
Credit Recovery
Problems relating to delays in payment
In 2021, the percentage of companies that paid their suppliers on time was only 36.5% of the total, a slight improvement compared to 2020 (+2.2%). The figure appears in a study made by Cribis, a company specializing in business information. The survey also highlighted the fact that companies with payment delays of more than thirty days grew by 21.9% in 2020 compared to 2019 (basically due to Covid-19 effects of bad debts), reaching an overall rate of 12.8% of the total. Settlement of invoices in Italy is notably worse than the European average regarding punctuality, by nearly 8%, and is worse by more than 3% as regards more serious delays. This situation put companies in Italy in a more difficult position than their EU competitors and counterparts, especially during the Pandemic, and this weaker position is due to a chronic lack of liquidity.
The goal of debt recovery is to collect in full any sums due for work done. This may seem like a truism, but in the real world it is anything but that. The flawless execution of legal formalities may not lead to the expected outcome, since the debtor may have managed to hide or divert resources reachable by legal recovery efforts. As many Italian businesses know, without a well-done preliminary due diligence regarding the existence of the assets on which to realize the credit recovery, and without a strategy to move towards attaching such assets, the outcome of the effort can ultimately fail and involve additional losses. In fact, not only are the amounts due not paid, but the creditor also has to bear the costs relating to the legal proceedings which in the end have not brought him any benefits.
Recovery strategies
The rigorous steps provided for in the Italian Civil Code require that such recovery efforts be based on a good understanding of the particular conditions in which the debtor finds himself, integrated with the actions useful for carrying out the essential goal of the Client, the recovery of the monies due. The Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro has acquired decades of experience in all the pertinent areas which contribute to a success credit recovery action. Before even beginning the routine legal activities (such as giving notice to the debtor of its intent to enforce its rights and seize assets, etc., etc.), the Firm performs due diligence to catalogue debtor assets potentially available for legal seizure, in order to enforce payment. Such due diligence extends, if necessary, to consideration of potentially taking revocatory actions in order to regain possession of assets that the debtor has improperly transferred to third parties, with the aim of removing them from the purview of other creditors. The Firm’s experts also examine applicable company accounts, to identify the existence of debts that may be due, or to bring civil liability actions against directors or corporate officers. The investigation identifies the resources that can be used to cover any unpaid amounts. Indeed, this preliminary stage must be followed by the actual recovery of the amounts due, and effectiveness in the resolution of such efforts is the Firm’s distinctive added value. The experience nurtured through the years has made it possible for us to obtain the necessary skills to carry out in the best way possible all compensation and credit recovery efforts.
By taking these precautions and this preparation – in the worst-case scenario – the client is spared the further loss of investing time and resources in a futile action. In other situations, the appropriate paths are found to recover the amount due, either in full or to the maximum amount possible.
Efficient countrywide coverage
Moreover, the Law Firm of Cascio & Ferraro does not limit its work to the Courts of Milan; due to the decades of experience gained by the firm’s founders, the firm has close working relations with a network of trusted colleagues around the country, thus ensuring protection of client interests all throughout Italy.
For informations or consulancy
Via Lamarmora 40 • 20122 Milano
tel +39 02.55194437 • fax +39 02.55194446