The American Lawyer - Focus Europe, Winter 2012

9 UNITED KINGDOM: Elite firms try to be less so • 10 EUROPEAN UNION: Euro crisis leads to new work • Workers’ councils get a boost 11 SPAIN: Forget you ever saw this • 13 FRANCE: Merger annulled—five years later • 14 THE CHURN: Lateral moves

ANDRE W MEDICHINI/AP PHOTO

ITALY The Libyan Connection

The aftermath of a bloody civil war might not seem like the best time to start doing business again in Libya. But Italian lawyers were already returning to the North African nation even before former leader Muammar el-Qaddafi was captured.

They intend to capitalize on the deep historic and economic ties between the two countries.

Paolo Greco, managing
partner of the Italian law
firm P&A Legal, reopened
the firm’s Tripoli office on
October 10 after having
shut it down in February as
the conflict escalated. “At
the moment we are help-
ing companies that already
had contracts in Libya, but
it’s in a very initial phase,”
Greco explains. “The war
just ended, and we’re at the
beginning of a normaliza-
tion process.”
It’s not surprising that an
Italian lawyer was among
the first foreigners back in
Tripoli this autumn. Libya
is a former Italian colony,
and Italy ranked as Libya’s
biggest trade partner be-
fore the civil war that led to Qaddafi’s
demise. Figures from Eurostat put the
value of Italy-Libya trade at € 15 billion
in 2010.

The money flows both ways. ENI SpA, the Italian oil major, is Libya’s largest foreign investor. Libyan state-con-trolled entities, meanwhile, have been key shareholders in a number of Italy’s leading businesses. The Libyan central bank and sovereign wealth fund jointly hold 7.5 percent of UniCredit S.p.A., making them the biggest single investor in the Milan-based banking giant. Libyan entities also have significant stakes in Finmeccanica SpA, the defense group, and Juventus, the Turin soccer club.

During the Qaddafi period, the Lib-
yan economy was both closed and inex-
tricably tied to the Qaddafi clan, which
meant that there was little legal work
of interest to international firms. For
the most part, the country tended to be
a niche market served by Italian bou-
tique firms like P&A Legal, which had
five lawyers in Tripoli before the con-
minister Silvio Berlusconi seemed to be
reluctant to break its close relationship
with Qaddafi. That could be a handicap
with the post-Qaddafi government. Still,
lawyers believe that Italian companies
will remain heavy investors in the new
Libya. Nor are Libyan state investors
expected to sell their stakes in Italian
companies. However, these
lawyers acknowledge that
Libya is likely to see a surge
of interest from new inves-
tors from France, the Unit-
ed States, and the United
Kingdom, because all of
those countries came out
more forcibly on the side of
the anti-Qaddafi rebels.
But they think that the
pie should be big enough
for everyone if the Libyan
economy opens up as ex-
pected. “There are many
new Italian and other for-
eign companies that are
interested in evaluating
opportunities associated
with reconstruction,” says
Greco. He explains that
schools, hospitals, roads,
sewer systems, and other
infrastructure destroyed
during the conflict will have to be re-
built. He stresses that the rebuilding
is in an exploratory phase, partially be-
cause there aren’t any stable Libyan gov-
ernment agencies to handle their side of
contracts.

Paolo Esposito, a partner with CBA Studio Legale in Milan, also sees interest by Italian companies in investments in Libya’s energy and tourism sectors. To be ready to capitalize on that interest, he says that his firm is strengthening its ties with Libyan law firms.

Those ties will be increasingly important in the post-Qaddafi era. “Libyans know Italy and Italians very well,” notes SNR Denton’s Lacey. “There is a great cultural affinity.” — Heather O’Brian

Drawing on the historic ties between the
two countries, Italian lawyers are ready
to work on Libya’s reconstruction.

Former leaders: Italy’s Berlusconi (left) with Libya’s Qaddafi

flict, and De Capoa & Associati, which had eight. Most of the large U.K. and U.S. firms handled Libyan matters from their London or continental European offices.

Some international firms have also partnered with local Libyan firms, which traditionally have been very small. SNR Denton, for example, has an alliance with Tumi Law Firm, which has a client list that includes Saipem S.p.A., the Italian oil services group that is a subsidiary of ENI. Michael Lacey, a partner in SNR Denton’s Cairo office, says that Tumi is now seeking to hire additional lawyers.