Linklaters Milan capital markets partner Claudia Parzani is the magic circle firm’s western Europe managing partner. She has been at the firm for 10 years, and between 2013 and 2016 she was also president of Valore D, an association of 150 companies that works to increase the female representation at the top of Italian business. She has advised many of Italy’s biggest banks, including UniCredit, BPER and Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Why did you become a lawyer? I always wanted to become a lawyer. My mother still remembers a time when, during lunch with friends and relatives, I said that I wanted to be a ‘just’ lawyer and represent people who needed help. I became a finance lawyer, but I developed a deep interest in many causes, the most dear to me being diversity. I want to leave to my three daughters, to my friends’ daughters, and to the girls of my country, a world where meritocracy is the rule and the appointment of a woman is not news.
