25 Sep 2023 - Lawyer 2.0
In the current economic and social context, the legal profession can no longer be practiced as it used to be but must necessarily adapt and conform to new principles.
The post-pandemic crisis caused by COVID – 19 and the current scenario of geopolitical and energy crisis do not allow legal practices to be managed as they once did when the lawyer in order to "show"the muscles to the other party perhaps proposed many actions and disputes which certainly improved and increased their fees but did not have preponderant benefits for their client.
The approach of lawyers and also of clients in the management of disputes and legal affairs in general must be reversed.
In fact, for the company the lawyer must represent an added value, a resource and not a burden.
We need to move on from the old principle according to which "the longer the cause hangs the more it pays” with a different setting aimed at guaranteeing “Speed in defining the practice in order to do justice to the unfortunate person and remove him from the unrest, anxieties, fears that inevitably accompany the outcome of a trial”.
More, the lawyer should be made involved in the "destinies" of his client with respect to the business handled legally and jurisdictionally. In fact, the lawyer who for that specific business entrusted to him participates in the results deriving from the successful outcome of the litigation or negotiation has everything the interest a
resolve the potential dispute or dispute quickly to ensure that he too receives compensation.
In this perspective, the lawyer would become a "partner" of the company – customer with respect to the practice entrusted to him with the inevitable positive and advantageous impact both for the professional and for the company: the lawyer would have the main interest, also personal, to manage the practice in the most effective way, as quickly and fruitfully as possible, thus becoming an entrepreneur who participates in the risks of the business.
On the other hand, European and national legislators have also ended up assimilating the professional in recent years, the self-employed worker to the company.
In fact, COVID 19 intervened in the midst of the pandemic, with an emergency decree the legislator with the art. 56 of the D.L. 17 March 2020 n. 18 “Cure Italy” – which assimilated freelancers or self-employed workers to the European classification of companies in order to be able to enjoy the banking moratorium and the
suspension of mortgage payments - in fact paragraph 5 expressly stated "For the purposes of this article, Enterprises mean micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises as defined by the European Commission Recommendation no.. 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003, having headquarters in Italy”
In fact, according to the definition contained in the Recommendation of the European Commission, is considered a business «every entity, regardless of the legal form, that carries out an economic activity» (wording that reflects the terminology used by the European Court of Justice in its rulings); in fact, economic activity is any activity that consists of offering goods or services on a specific market.
In short, freelancers are equated with SMEs.
In the credit sector, eg, effective legal action is one in which the lawyer becomes a partner - associate of his client or of the entrepreneurial activity of his client, obviously with respect to the credits assigned to it and implements the best possible strategies to ensure the repayment of unpaid debts.
This does not translate into the experiment of multiple judicial actions and the preparation of redundant defensive and judicial documents, but it translates into carrying out targeted and calibrated actions based on the success of the recovery. In short, effective legal action is one that is characterized by entrepreneurial traits, that is, one anchored to the result sought by the client: is thus overcome and rendered
the old adage is obsoletethe longer the cause hangs the more it pays”.
Ultimately, we have a corporate and entrepreneurial approach to legal action aimed at ensuring the best possible result in the shortest time and pursuing the profit that coincides with that of one's client.. In this way the company – customer ensures one “sustainable stakeholder” who acts in line with his interests and in the best possible way.