K&L Gates Assists Cooperativa Alice in Corporate Restructuring and Launch of "Ethically-in-Italy" District

K&L Gates, including counsel Lorenzo Fratantoni, recently assisted manufacturing non-profit organization Cooperativa Alice in its corporate restructuring process, leading the organization to successfully avoid a forced liquidation imposed by the Ministry of Economic Development due to significant losses.

For 30 years, Cooperativa Alice has been facilitating the social reintegration of hundreds of incarcerated women through teaching the art of tailoring in factories in the San Vittore, Monza, and Bollate detention institutes, as well as in the "external" tailor factory in Milan. With the help of the country's greatest and most recognized masters, and through continuous training, respect for national labor contracts, and care for the individual, Alice seeks to re-establish a fair balance between the law, incarcerated women, and society. 

Since 1992, Cooperativa Alice has been fully re-investing the profits from its work into training and labour inclusion courses to fight recidivism, restore individual dignity, and provide the education necessary to lead society toward social sustainability.

Our legal advice focused on three different aspects. 

First, our team concentrated on the cover of the losses, which was achieved through the restatement of the by-laws and the other organizational charts in order to allow external partners to finance Cooperativa Alice as financial partners, the agreements with such new partners, and the completion of the related capital injection.  

The second aspect of our legal advice focused on the new business model based on social sustainability in the fashion sector. Alice is the first Italian manufacturing company with a Fair Trade certification, offering ethical and sustainable "Made-in-Italy" production to luxury fashion brands. 

Our third focus was the expansion of Alice operations to include a domestic violence shelter.

This legal advice to Alice was provided from October 2021 to May 2022 by counsel Lorenzo Fratantoni with the support of trainee Pietro Bertuzzi.

Giampaolo Salsi, managing partner of K&L Gates' Milan office, said: "Our firm pays particular attention to its social role, also through pro bono activities. We are very pleased to have successfully assisted an organization, recognized for its important values, that was going through a difficult time."