Lawyer Giulia Chiara Gelsomino
I was born in 1987 and, after completing classical high school, graduated from Bocconi University in Milan with a major in Litigation and Negotiation. I have been a member of the Milan Bar Association since 2018.
I have extensive experience in family law, minors' law, and personal law, and I work with an approach that, without delegating decisions to third parties, places the interests of individuals, the family as a whole, and the children at the center.
Lawyer Francesca King
My field of expertise is family conflict (separations, divorces, disputes between unmarried parents, dissolution of civil unions). In this specific area, I have developed increasing experience over the years in managing non-contentious conflict, cultivating skills in negotiation, assisting parties in mediation, and practicing collaborative law.
I also deal with minors’ rights and personal rights, with particular experience in the field of special adoptions, assisting same-sex parent families, and legally supporting gender transition processes to obtain birth record corrections.
I am a member of AIAF, the Italian Association of Lawyers for Family and Minors, and a member of IAFL, the International Academy of Family Lawyers.
I am one of the founding members of AIADC – the Italian Association of Collaborative Professionals, where I served as president from 2013 to 2016, and I was among the first lawyers in Italy to use collaborative practice as a method for resolving family conflicts. In 2019-2020, I served as the first non-North American President of IACP – the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the international association for collaborative professionals worldwide.
I am the co-author of the book “Collaborative Practice: Dialogue between Theory and Practice” (UTET, 2017, edited by Sala and Menichino) and among the translators of Nancy Cameron’s book “Collaborative Practice: Deepening the Dialogue” (Bruno Mondadori, 2016, edited by Mordiglia). I have authored several articles in specialized journals.
I regularly participate as a speaker at conferences and events for lawyers and other professionals and am an AIADC trainer for collaborative practice.
as part of a team with me
A bit of history
1995-2005
Charting the course
After graduating with honors in Law from the University of Milan in 1995, I collaborated for several years with the Department of Criminal Law at the same university, obtaining in 2002 a PhD in Private and Comparative Criminal Law from the University of Pavia
Even during that period of study, my main interest was the family and the consequences that poorly managed conflicts can cause, from various forms of abuse to homicide as a reaction from the victim
As soon as I could, I returned to focus on families and family conflict, this time as a lawyer
2010-2020
New frontiers
In 2010, I trained in Collaborative Practice, and this training convinced me of the need, to serve my clients in a truly effective and comprehensive way, to cultivate new and additional skills beyond the typical lawyer’s training, such as listening, communication, and conflict management skills
I trained in mediation following the transformative model of Folger and Bush and the understanding-based model of Friedman and Himmelstein, as well as deepening my skills in collaborative practice and consensual conflict resolution methods, both in Italy and abroad
It was during this period that my involvement in the collaborative practice associations AIADC and IACP began
2015-present
Innovative approach
In 2015, together with my colleague and friend Elisabetta Zecca, I created a practice “for families,” envisioning a place where we could offer useful skills to our clients and also to their families, their children, and therefore to future generations
That philosophy still shapes my professional approach today, in the practice I opened in 2020 with Mario Dotti: the commitment to support clients in their freedom of self-determination, including in choosing among different paths and possible methods and in finding solutions that arise from “going through” the conflict rather than avoiding it
From this new collaboration, the idea of integrated neutral assistance was developed, helping couples to separate while being on the same side (www.dottiking.com)