For lawyers the challenge of reform
The enabling bill intervenes to comprehensively regulate the ways in which the profession is exercised that have emerged over the years. A survey of the sectors in which legal activity is exercised: from criminal law to tax law, from labour law to mergers and acquisitions
From aggregations to fees, from mono-committal to incompatibilities, and even to reserved activities. It is a 360-degree intervention on the profession that is contained in the draft delegated law on forensic reform, which should reach final approval by the summer. Then the path of implementation will begin, entrusted to the legislative decrees that the Government will have to finalise within six months of the law coming into force.
The text being examined by Parliament is based on the proposal drawn up by the National Bar Council to reform the 2012 professional law, with the aim of providing a regulatory framework for some of the innovations that have affected the legal profession over the years. Thus, the new networks between lawyers could offer an agile formula for exercising the profession in aggregate form, in a landscape where the independent practice is still prevalent. The intention is to regulate mono-contracting and continuous collaboration. While the openings on the incompatibility front could open up new spaces for action.
Of course, the reform is not the answer to all the challenges open to the legal profession, which moves in a rapidly changing scenario marked by technological innovation and the spread of artificial intelligence tools. Signs of dynamism are coming from the various sectors, monitored in the following pages: such as M& A, which has accelerated its evolution, making even legal work more sophisticated; the tax field, which is confronted with the tax control framework; and real estate, with a market growing beyond expectations.
These changes are also reflected in the survey conducted by Statista for Il Sole 24 Ore, which collects law firms reported by lawyers, corporate lawyers and clients. This year, there are 346 law firms reported, with 24 new entries, divided into 15 areas of expertise and five territorial areas.
