di Sharon Reilly (Studio LabLaw)

Una reporter speciale dimostra che il diritto del lavoro e gli specialisti italiani del settore occupano uno spazio sempre più significativo anche a livello internazionale

Well, what an impressive turnout of Italian lawyers at the Annual European Employment Lawyers Association (EELA) Conference in Prague last month!

Over the last 10 years there were very few other Italian lawyers on the scene: Whatever the reason, things are changing, and it seems that the the Italian legal fraternity has finally ‘woken up and smelt the coffee’.

EELA was the brain child of Dame Janet Gaymer DBE, QC (Hon), Founder Chairman and now Honorary Chairman of the Association. As a UK employment lawyer, Dame Janet has been variously described as the ‘doyenne’ of employment lawyers, ‘the foremost female solicitor of her generation’, and ‘a matriarch of the legal profession’. She was ranked as the ‘top Employment Lawyer in Europe’ in Chambers' Guide to the Legal Profession (2000 to 2001) and has many other accolades to her name. She founded and led the Employment Law Department of Simmons & Simmons and has been practising and researching employment law for over 35 years.

Dame Janet had the foresight back in the late nineties to see that employment law and employment lawyers had to reach beyond their domestic boundaries and look further afield, if they were to keep pace with the changing world and what in retrospect was the advent of globalization as we know it today.

EELA was founded in 1999 by Dame Janet, together with a small core of leading employment lawyers in Europe, who recognised the need to connect the employment law community in the EU: EELA now has over 1,300 members, which is a clear testament to the internationalisation of employment law.

This year’s annual conference in Prague had a record attendance of 500 delegates. Lawyers from niche employment practices rubbing shoulders with the big guns from the global full service firms and holding their own very nicely, thank you. When it comes to the nitty-gritty of employment issues in the workplace, the client is probably more in need of a heavy-weight employment specialist in that jurisdiction, than a global brand, unless of course the two happen to coincide...

I was curious to see the geographical spread of delegates, so I drilled down and found that the number of lawyers from any given country mirrored where, in my experience, the international referral work comes from; here are the statistics - judge for yourself!

UK: 68
GERMANY: 51
ITALY: 43
NETHERLANDS: 35
FRANCE: 33
DENMARK: 33
SPAIN: 23
BELGIUM: 23
SWEDEN: 16
POLAND: 13.

The sessions included: ‘Human Migration Across Europe’ and integration into the European workforce, ‘On Demand Economy, There’s an App for That’, which looked at how the business is structured and who is the employer.

The panel on ‘The Role of Employment Lawyers in Internal Investigations’ showed how lawyers are evolving into trusted business partners, which can only be seen as a good thing.

Representatives from the National Associations of Employment Lawyers (including AGI for Italy) convened, to discuss the reduction in the employee’s protection against unfair dismissal in their respective countries and the standing of employment law specialists there.

Last but not least, a pertinent panel on: ‘Management Employees: Where the Roads of Employment Law and Company Law Cross’, and the problems that can arise vis-a vis employment protections, responsibilities and potential discrimination.

However my favourite session was: ‘Recent Decisions and Current Cases before the European Courts’, by Michael Rubenstein, which has become a very welcome fixture at EELA: Michael gave us a whistle-stop tour of what’s happening at the European Court of Justice ECJ on a variety of employment law issues, with some surprising outcomes! The measure of this session’s success is the fact that it was on the Saturday morning (post-gala dinner), and commanded practically a full house!

The social events (cocktail reception at St Agnes Convent and gala dinner at the Zofin Palace) provided a perfect setting – ecclesiastic on Thursday and regal on Friday – in which to relax and mingle with old friends and new, sharing knowledge and experiences - and of course doing business.

The phenomenal growth of EELA surely gives credence to the fact that employment lawyers have come into their own in the past 15 years and are no longer seen as the poor relation, or as an adjunct to the M&A practice.

Finally, the high number of Italian lawyers this year did not go unnoticed (not only because they are by far the best-dressed!) and transmitted a clear message that Italy is an important player in the international playground.