Publication date: November 24, 2021
November has now passed and the fog has arrived. A dense, cold vapor envelops a still sleepy Turin, numbed by the fatigue of the week. The appointment with Emanuela and Raffaele, co-founders of the legal boutique Futura Law Firm, is in their office on the first floor of a historic building just steps from Piazza Solferino, the Savoy heart of the city. Both lawyers, Emanuela with a passion for sustainability, Raffaele with one for technology and digital, decided to found Futura Law Firm in 2021.
"Futura, in Latin, means 'future things' - explains Raffaele, who is also CEO of Futura. We chose this name because innovation is at the core of our project. Innovation doesn’t only mean technology and digital, my areas of expertise, but also social, the area Emanuela follows. We didn’t choose to use our surnames - as traditionally happens in legal firms - also to give lawyers who identify with this vision the chance to be part of our team." A team that, also thanks to the legal form of a partnership among lawyers (STA), is made up of professionals with diverse backgrounds and extra-legal skills. "Our team includes a digital entrepreneur, Amedeo Perna - our Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder - and a philosophy expert, Marco Cassinera, the Chief Philosophy Officer, who helps us with strategic and sustainability activities," Emanuela says.
We sip hot coffee and tour the office. The antique parquet creaks, the Art Nouveau stained glass windows set in thick wooden frames transform the gray light into warm, colorful beams. After many months of remote conversations, it’s nice to spend time together; Emanuela and Raffaele were among the first to discover Boniviri and support the project. "This is a business center," he explains. We made this choice, quite innovative in the world of law firms, to give people the freedom to live the space and time of work freely; the important thing is to achieve the goal. The social dimension of our project, which we care deeply about, also comes through here. And this solution pushes us to go to our clients, meet them, establish a direct relationship with them."
Futura Law Firm is among the few benefit law firms in Italy, the only one in Piedmont, and for this reason also promotes this innovative legal form by assisting SMEs, start-ups, and professional companies in establishing and evolving into benefit corporations. A legal form, introduced in Italy in 2015, that represents an innovation in sustainable business management by imposing few but concrete obligations. First of all, the integration of common benefit objectives into the company’s bylaws and the annual reporting of results, not only business but also social, which the directors must present through the Impact Report. "We have also included kindness in our bylaws because we believe this principle is necessary, not only in our sector but in general. If we were all kinder, our society would be better and fairer."
We talk about the future and Raffaele, who brought the Legal Hackers movement from New York to Italy in 2016, guides me through a new world populated by words like blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, NFTs, metaverse. From the way he talks about it, I understand he is a very skilled navigator. Speaking of the future, what will Futura Law Firm be like in a few years? "We are convinced that innovation and sustainability are closely linked; sustainability is also achieved by leveraging new technologies. Probably in ten years, we won’t make distinctions anymore and will only talk about innovation. Our team, now also including Santiago Martin Caravaca, Luigi Cantisani, and Selen Ekinci, will have grown, but the principles and our vision will still be the same."
Time has flown and we have to say goodbye.
I keep thinking about future things as I leave behind the royal squares, the grand boulevards, and the illuminated dome of the Mole Antonelliana. Emanuela and Raffaele are right: in these uncertain and turbulent times, kindness, the freedom to choose, the right timing, open teams, and mixed skills are the safest way we have to navigate the present and build a better future.
