Does anybody know whats going on at GiambroneLaw?

08/05/2009 - 12:08

Is anyone currently using GiambroneLaw solicitors for legal work? I read that Mr Giambrone has been reprimanded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Are they still operating?

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Legal

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Have heard little about them since this Mail On Sunday article (PDF Document). There are, however, we believe still operating.

Many thanks, my sister is looking for a solicitor and I had thought of recommending them. I know they were based in the Strand in London but the details have disappeared from their website since I last looked a few months ago. I suppose I should think again.

first link is to the solictors regulation authority... and the decison reached about the above law firm July this yearwww.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/3165.article then a bit more detailed article http://www.edwincoellp.org/CalabrianPropertyDevelopments/furtherinformation.asp suggest you search google for a forum called incalabria if your sister is fixed on buying down there... lots of help and experience ... believe they have upset many firms with their presence on the internet.. have heard many rumours but the two first links are fact at least and the second link shows that hepromised to leave the UK back in January which stopped the first investigation... also moved client files to Italy without permsion.. i think Giambrone as it was will be moving out to Palermo maybe...

Yes, have a look at www.incalabria.com It's forum has lots on this company, many memebers with first hand experience.

Where to start? Giambrone has closed up in the Uk and allegedly done a runner to palermo. The SRG want to speak to him and his ex associates for many many reasons. He has also, I hear, taken all his client records out of the UK which he shouldnt have done. Itll all end in tears and hopefully justice for many clients.

Can anyone recommend another "reputable" firm of solicitors?

if you look at this forum you will find Charlotte Oliver ... she runs the italian succession law group.... works for a rome solicitor practice... anyway can suggest her as we have worked with her on sales.. if she cannot help where you live she may well be able to suggest someone else....

Otherwise if you want someone based in the UK you can try Laura Protti who is UK and Italian qualified. She was in charge of the Italian Department at Howells. London, but has set up independently with an office in London, W1. Her website is http://www.leplaw.co.uk/index.html

I have just used an english speaking italian solicitor named Mirella Marchini from Liddle and Anderson,Bo`Ness to deal with a property transaction,very efficient and very nice, I have no hesitation in reccommending her/them.

sorry to move outside the orriginal giambrone subject... but it seems that this company has pretty well decided to stop trading...no gaimabrone type activity... just a simple question of money... Howell has said the company had written off over £500,000 of anticipated income so far this year, while actual income had fallen by nearly 75%. “Over the last few months our clients – and, in particular, our developer clients – have been going bust at a catastrophic rate and many of our other clients are unwilling or unable to pay their bills,” said Howell. “We have, therefore and with great regret, decided to close the business.” i think this is a warning to all that are commiting to off plan at this time to think carefully and make sure you at least have a trusted lawyer on board to investigate the compamy background ... i would be inclined to basically sit tight and wait... and buy fully built and viewed ... at the moment... talking about giambrone... it seems down in calbaria also there were 57 arrests regarding one comune where places were /are supposed to be built ... some of the developments and planning are in question... the in calbria forum is a sad nightmare of talk at the moment... at the moment there is a lot not going right in the world as a whole... some people might say that if you sit tight and dont spend your money you add to the crisis... my view is... if the money you have isnt sufficient that you can loose it all without a second thought... let things get sorted first... let the builds that are never going to get built pass you buy, forget offplan for at least a couple of yeras and if planning to do this as rental/investment... especailley on coastal apartments... give it a miss....

My understanding is that Giambrone have moved all of their client accounts to Italy, without the required permission of their clients and as a direct result of potential discipline by the British Legal Authorities. He is now asking clients to "reinstruct" him in Italy as a means of getting around this. Many people who have failed to do so or have directly "disinstructed" are still waiting for answers to questions about where their deposit money is located according to the InCalabria forum.There is another firm which many others are using in Calabria called Martinez Echeverria who seem to follow MRI around the world and open up operations wherever MRI sell. This firm, it has been said frequently, have not fulfilled the necessary requirements to operate as a law firm in Italy. I personally do not know if this is true but many Italian Law firms have confirmed this on other forums.I personally believe that if you are buying an existing property then choosing the right Notary is as, if not more, important than the lawyer. We used both a lawyer and a Notary for our purchases here and the lawyer was a waste of space. We learned far more from the Notary about saving taxes, potential pitfalls, etc than we ever did through our lawyer. Seeing your Notary well before purchase and going through your contract requirements, searches, what protections you wanted and anything else you can think of served us very well and we were not charged extra for meetings up front, we were merely charged the price we were quoted at the beginningIf anyone is buying on the West Coast of Calabria the Notary we used employs an English speaking lawyer as part of his firm. He saved us a great deal of money on our purchases and I would recommend him to anyone. The Notary is called Snr. Bilangione and he is based at Falerna Marina (next to a wonderful Gelateria). He even sends out for cocktails when you complete which we certainly never got from Chargem and Scarper Lawyers in England.

What a nightmare. Just been reading some of the posts on in calabria.

did an intereting article on this back in Aprilhttp://www.pugliauncovered.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=500&Itemid=52 which shows that forums can publish things and try to help... another site with a property forum is this and basically it is just full of calabrian stories.....http://www.eyeonworldwide.com/forum/?CategoryID=22 funnily enough...but not for those that got caught was that the dolce vita show was pretty well full of calbarian developers ... and at that stgae much of what has gone on was pretty well known behind the scenes at least... giambrone was already under investigation... i guess it was one last chance to make a sales killing because i heard comments about the hard sales going on there.... befoe the bubble really burst in the media... just out of interest...cause we dont buy the italy magazine...do they still help as experts on legal advice... that would be a bit of a ...well not sure... but funny anyway

Funnily enough I don't remember seeing them in the Italy Mag for a while now!

I am one of those unfortunate people who have had dealings with giambrone lately. I have also reported them to the law society for misconduct ! They still hold our paper work and money. It just tops my overall very depressing episode of living in Italy ! Glad to be back in UK !!

I instructed Giambrone in March this year to help with the purchase of a northern Italy property. I checked them out online, spoke to people in the office, met the lawyers in the manchester office who seemed kosher and paid them some money on account. Three weeks later they fired all their solicitors. Turns out that at the time I appointed them they were being investigated by the SRA - but there was no way of me knowing this as its all confidential until they publish their reports. There is a site called solicitors from hell or something (google it) that includes Giambrone on their blacklist - found that one too late unfortunately, and didn't come across the incalabria postings. BUT even with all this, I have still decided to use a solicitor in our house purchase. Dealing directly with the notary is impractical if you don't speak Italian and aren't actually local to the office already I think. Also, notaries do make mistakes and omissions - turns out the house we want to buy wasn't registered on the land registry properly by the previous notary. No-one ever said it was going to be easy! Pazienza...

rlj72, very often a property won't show up on the "catasto" land registry because it is not updated. That is a flaw of the catasto, not the notary. It makes no difference to the legality of the sale - the catasto records are not "probatorio" - it does not provide proof of ownership. What is important is that the atto di compravendita (deed of sale) was registered at the Conservatoria dei registri immobiliari. If the notary failed to do that, (which I very much doubt) then the vendor should sue and the notary be struck off - it's that big a mistake.If the lawyer is telling you that the transfer of ownership not showing up in the catasto is a problem, I suspect he or she is trying to justify their fee by making out there are problems.

Before you hire any lawyer, find out how qualified they are. The reason I say this is because it has become very popular in Italy for those having trouble passing the bar exam to go "la via spagnola" (the Spanish route). In Italy, to become a practicing lawyer, like in the UK, a law degree is only the beginning: after the degree the aspiring avvocato must do two years of internship (usually for free), and must take part in at least twenty cases every six months. Then they need to pass a very difficult public exam (the bar) to become an avvocato. Depending on the area, the fail rate is usually very high and it can take years and years to pass it. There is a way around it though. In Spain, there is no bar exam and no internship, and thanks to EU laws, all the aspiring avvocato has to do is get their degree recognised in Spain, then enroll in the register of abogado in that country. Then thanks to the free movement of attorneys in Europe, they can then register in Italy as a full-fledged avvocato. No internship, no bar exam.Many new Italian lawyers have gone this route, if you do a search on the internet for "diventare avvocato senza esame di abilitazione" you'll see there are websites set up doing this for people as a business, the aspiring lawyer doesn't even have to visit Spain. Going "la via spagnola" (the Spanish route) is becoming more and more popular, and there is a rush to do it now before 2011 when Spain will have to introduce a bar exam to align itself with Europe.

i like the fact that extra knowledge helps protect you in my opinion but doesnt all of our advice go tothe wall when someones dishonest.... this comapny amanaged to operate in the UK and Italy for a long time and have basically stolen loads of maoney...an architect from that area running a famous estae agency ...one of the biggest national comapnies also involved...Dolce Vita... basiaccly funded by them...the supposed font of all knowledeg of Italain life and property exhibitors, the chamber of commerce of Italy, the fact that despite crimainal charges the company still operates, legal; advisor on this magazine and various other specailist property areas .. ie most of the UK buying abroad suplements...maybe its safer to use a spanish qualified lawyer for a bit... because UK and Italian regulations means Pee all... it now seems to me... i basically have the feeling that the calabrian properties built illegally and sold via the ex spanish companies...that moved here from sapin, the italian lawyer connection to make it look Kosher and the collaboration from the municipal authorities will mean that they will get pulled down... as the anti cementification laws are applied...as the comunes ..as if they didnt know wake up one morning and realise theres a high rise block built on protected land that has to be knocked down... hence fisnishing any problems as to the sellin agents as they will then disapear as will the buildings...most probabley demolished with a special EU fund for the enviromnet...and that will be that... comune planners with heaps of euro in their back poscket ... alog with all the rest involved...whats the bettingas to where the nest hot spot will be...cause they never give up... its already happened in Pyglia... and i reckon Basilicata looks ripe for the new palce to find people that are easily duped...actually not easily...the problem is that newspapers and respected radio programs seem to have a list of so called profesional experts... because they have set up EU bodies...like the " profesional european estate agency union"guaranteeing you peace of mind thrrough their membership... which hopefully doesnt exist under that name otherwise im stuffed...to paint respectabilty over scams and rip offs.... all of us here know that so and so president of this and this doesnt even have a licence to operte and yet is always being represented as the font of all knowledge on Italian property buying whilst relatives have other comapnies doing the selling... my one bit of advice is avoid anyone telling you that they guarantee peace of mind...be it lawyer or estate agent...cause none of us can... all we can do is work with the stsytems in any area and do our best the Italian legals system is full..to over flowing with sons and daughters of lawyesr and you are guaranteed to pass any exam here with or without knowledge is your father mother is a lwayer too... .. we had dealings with Giambrone a few years back with one of their Italian lawyers... who when asked to draft the inital contract as an offrer didnt know what it was... and after that when we got to compromesso stage we had to send her one of ours so that she could draft that too... using ours as an example...she was fully qualified here in Italy as a lawyer... so there you go rules are rules and none of them apply here... use a lawyer that someone else can firmly and confidentley reccomend...that you actually have confidence in...ie have seen things posted even here that are obviously being set forward ny the companies themselves... a common practice here in Abruzzo were i believe discounts were offered to clients willing to post good comments... Garda lives in a diferent world from many parts of Italy ... many of the rules followed in the north are scantily upheld in the other areas of Italy where thinking of disbaring a notary or lawyer are pretyy well unheard of... would be interested to hear if there are any that have actualy been disbarred apart from crimianal activity..but via negligence in regards to their work anywhere ever in Italy... i really dont think so ... the magistrates that rule on them cannot because you cannot throw stones in galss houses i think the saying goes...

I agree with the fact that extra knowledge helps protect you in my opinion but doesn’t all of our advice go to the wall when someone’s dishonest.... this company managed to operate in the UK and Italy for a long time and have basically stolen loads of money...an architect from that area running a famous estate agency ...one of the biggest national companies also involved...Dolce Vita... basically funded by them...the supposed font of all knowledge of Italian life and property exhibitors, the chamber of commerce of Italy, the fact that despite criminal charges the company still operates, legal; advisor on this magazine and various other specialist property areas .. I.e. most of the UK buying abroad supplements...maybe its safer to use a Spanish qualified lawyer for a bit... because UK and Italian regulations means Pee all... it now seems to me... I basically have the feeling that the calabrian properties built illegally and sold via the ex Spanish companies...that moved here from Spain, the Italian lawyer connection to make it look Kosher and the collaboration from the municipal authorities will mean that they will get pulled down... as the anti cementification laws are applied...as the comunes ..as if they didn’t know wake up one morning and realise threes a high rise block built on protected land that has to be knocked down... hence finishing any problems as to the selling agents as they will then disappear as will the buildings...most probably demolished with a special EU fund for the environment...and that will be that... comune planners with heaps of Euro in their back pocket ... along with all the rest involved...what’s the betting as to where the nest hot spot will be...cause they never give up... its already happened in Puglia... and i reckon Basilicata looks ripe for the new place to find people that are easily duped...actually not easily...the problem is that newspapers and respected radio programs seem to have a list of so called professional experts... because they have set up EU bodies...like the " professional European estate agency union" guaranteeing you peace of mind through their membership... which hopefully doesn’t exist under that name otherwise I’m stuffed...to paint respectability over scams and rip off.... all of us here know that so and so president of this and this doesn’t even have a licence to operate and yet is always being represented as the font of all knowledge on Italian property buying whilst relatives have other companies doing the selling... my one bit of advice is avoid anyone telling you that they guarantee peace of mind...be it lawyer or estate agent...cause none of us can... all we can do is work with the systems in any area and do our best the Italian legal system is full..to over flowing with sons and daughters of lawyers and you are guaranteed to pass any exam here with or without knowledge is your father mother is a lawyer too... .. we had dealings with Giambrone a few years back with one of their Italian lawyers... who when asked to draft the initial contract as an offer didn’t know what it was... and after that when we got to compromesso stage we had to send her one of ours so that she could draft that too... using ours as an example...she was fully qualified here in Italy as a lawyer... so there you go rules are rules and none of them apply here... use a lawyer that someone else can firmly and confidently recommend...that you actually have confidence in...ie have seen things posted even here that are obviously being set forward by the companies themselves... a common practice here in Abruzzo were i believe discounts were offered to clients willing to post good comments... Garda lives in a different world from many parts of Italy ... many of the rules followed in the north are scantily upheld in the other areas of Italy where thinking of disbarring a notary or lawyer are pretty well unheard of... would be interested to hear if there are any that have actually been disbarred apart from criminal activity..but via negligence in regards to their work anywhere ever in Italy... i really don’t think so ... the magistrates that rule on them cannot because you cannot throw stones in glass houses i think the saying goes... Sadly the majority of professionals in the law field here, notaries or lawyers do work well but are unable to or willing to accept that they need a system in place to weed out the useless and corrupt... it would be ice for all of us if they could be persuaded that they would be better off in all ways if they did help in chucking the useless or dishonest practitioners out on the street... you might find that the reason some of these people qualify out of Italy is because they cannot get any chance of breaking in and competing with established people here ...and this is the only way for them to go...not because they do not have knowledge...they will not be allowed to pass... there are tight quotas this fraternity maintains on who can join ... a good alternative example is the fact that good Italian scientifc researchers are renowned for their discoveries... working in research abroad not here...because all the posts here are filled with friends of friends with degrees gained because they had always been assigned to pass and get a job.... the Bidellos daughter in my sons class got a 10...(perfect score)in englsih and every other subject..and she cannot speak a word of English..it begins early here...