Italian/UK Contentious Probate
Contentious probate matters are by their nature often difficult and problematic. With the addition of heirs living in different countries and assets abroad, it’s a receipe for disaster. In such a case I have no hesitation in recommending the first class services of Giambrone Law, solicitors with many international offices. My family were so fortunate have their excellent Probate Partner in Rome, Helen Tefferre, who repeatedly proved herself the ultimate professional, with cool, level-headed advice, patient explanations and dogged tenacity over a very difficult five year period. Not only did she face unreasonable and difficult co-heirs in Italy, their own Southern Italian lawyers proved themselves to also be unreasonable and difficult to the extent of behaving in an unprofessional and obstructive manner. Helen dealt with all these problems with amazing patience and restraint, coupled with compassion towards her own clients, who unfortunately also proved themselves to be unreasonable and difficult on various occasions. Helen was an oasis of calm in what was at times a maelstrom of disinformation and obstruction. She led her most efficient Probate Team, notably Francesca Tinnarelli, to bring the matter to a final conclusion. Having worked myself in the UK for probate lawyers I was astounded by the complexity of Italian inheritance law and, also, by Helen’s skilled determination to follow Italian law while facing down the many provocations and devious behaviour of co-heirs and their legal representatives. I cannot recommend Helen Tefferre and her Team highly enough or praise them sufficiently. I hope they never have to face another case such as this. My eternal thanks to Helen, Francesca and all the Probate Team in various offices in Italy for their sterling hard work.