Alessandro Gravante

Lawyer

at Giambrone

+39 02 9475 4184

Milan

Italy

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I am a bi-lingual (English and Italian), Italian qualified lawyer with twenty years’ experience.

In 2015 I obtained Higher Rights of Audience before the Italian Supreme Courts.

Since 2007 I became Head of the Litigation Team at Studio Legale Giambrone and I had the opportunity to improve my experience in representing foreign clients before most of the Italian Courts, mainly in Milan, Rome, Turin, Florence, Naples, Pisa.

I became a Partner at Giambrone & Partners Studio Legale Associato in 2017 and since 2018 I am a Senior Partner.

Our offices in Italy are located in Milan, Rome, Naples, Salerno, Catania, Palermo and Sassari. Giambrone & Partners has also offices in the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Tunisia and Morocco.

I am a member of the International Bar Association (IBA), the International Child Abduction Lawyers Italy (ICALI), Camera degli Avvocati Internazionalisti and the Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL).

I am also a Consultant for CFAB – Children and Families Across the Borders and for Careful child relocation.

I speak Italian and English.

Subsidized legal aid is possible

Relevant experiences and positions

Having qualified in 2002, I initially trained in advocacy and drafting legal opinions and notes of advice on a broad range of legal issues related to Italian law.

Between 2002 and 2007, I developed my skills as a newly qualified lawyer and then associate lawyer; my main practice area was focused on commercial and family matters, legal research, drafting legal opinions for internal use and drafting notes of advice for German and English solicitors and foreign law firms on Italian Law.

I mainly work on cross borders family matters, including separation proceedings, divorce proceedings, child proceeding and dissolution of same sex marriages.

I also work on numerous child abduction proceedings, both in Italy and cooperating with foreign lawyers in their jurisdictions.

I have also had involvement in expert determination in UK and US Courts, providing expert reports and witness statements on Italian law.
Among others, I assisted the High Court of Justice, the Kingston Upon Thames County Court, the Winchester County Court, the Nottingham County Court as Expert.

In March 2019 I appeared as an Expert Witness in the High Court of South Africa – Gauteng Local Division, Johannesburg, to provide an expert opinion on Italian Family law in a complex multimillionaire divorce matter involving 2 Italian citizens.

I assist local authorities in the UK to provide expert reports for use in care proceedings, particularly in cases where children are to be placed with relatives in Italy and also to obtain recognition of the orders in Italy.

Among these, I assisted Tower Hamlets Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Kensington and Chelsea Council, Westminster City Council in providing family law advices regarding placing a British child in Italy.

I had also involvement in numerous child abduction proceedings and provided expert report and witness statements for English and US Courts.

A large proportion of my caseload involves high value, complex, cross-border matters with multiple parties involved residing in various jurisdictions.

Some personal questions

What do you like most about working as an international divorce lawyer?

I believe that working as an international divorce lawyer gives you the opportunity to explore areas of laws that are more exciting as they involve cross border elements, where different rules apply in various jurisdiction.

Moreover, most of the time the work is performed in conjunction with foreign lawyers and this gives you the possibility to learn other countries’ legal systems and procedures, building strong professional relationships.

What is your advice to young lawyers who work on international divorce cases?

I believe that young lawyers who want to work on international divorce cases should spend a period of time working in an international lawfirm in another country as this will help them to learn that there are different systems and ways to face a divorce case.

What is your advice for international parenting plans?

My advice is to be always focused on the children’s wellbeing, as a divorce is a trauma for a child and parents have the duty to keep it as soft as possible for them.

In international divorces this is even more important as most of the times the divorce will bring the parents to live in different countries, so contact and visitation rights must be preserved as much as possible as the family routine will be highly affected between the child and the non-custodial parent.

What is your advice to people who are entering into an international marriage?

I am aware that getting married or starting an international family is a moment where everyone is enthusiastic and the parties genuinely believe that everything will be fine so they do not want to think about a bad scenario. But it is always better to be concrete and think about what may happen if the future life together will not be as expected.

My advice is to take a moment to think and, since it is now possible, take decisions that may prevent many issues in the future, for example what national law will be applicable to a future divorce or child proceedings.

In the countries where it is possible, I also suggest to get an advice on pre-nupts because often the financial aspects of a divorce cause big issues to the children.

Also, as usually one of the spouses/partners is going to leave his/her home country, a financial agreement before the marriage may protect the future life abroad.

What would you like to say to judges who are dealing with international divorces?

I believe that Judges should have a different approach to international divorce cases as they cannot deal with them in the same way as for the national cases.
Judges, for example, should take into consideration the difficulties for a parent who lives abroad in order to visit the children who live in a different country and protect, also under a financial point of view, the parent’s capability to face the costs to travel to visit the children.

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