Need for professional aggregation: the associated study

The individual professional study "all'Italiana", characterized by professionals "allologians", seems to be destined to disappear in the face of "intellectual capitalism". Information, updating, knowledge and specialization are essential to be competitive, or better to be able to even "survive" in the current economic context.

To respond to these customer needs, which requires increasingly efficient responses to their professional, the only possible solution seems to be intellectual cooperation . The problem therefore arises of identifying which collaborative forms respond best to the needs of the market.

One of the solutions could include the use of external professionals to compensate for the lack of internal specialization and still be able to offer specific and rapid responses according to needs, but losing the overall vision allowed by the professional aggregation and having to support, as a consequence, not indifferent costs.

A second option could be professional aggregation, which would allow more specialized professionals to respond effectively and efficiently to the needs of the study. Furthermore, it would allow economies of scale to be implemented and thus reduce costs. In this context it seems evident that it is also possible and desirable that "mature" professionals (indispensable since they are already able to respond to the needs of the clientele) work alongside "young people", to grow professionally in the studio, in order to to obtain an environment formed by professionals in possession of unique and diversified "skills".

In the light of the considerations made, professional aggregation seems to be the only viable path for the success of the activity and, specifically, it is necessary to choose among the associative tools just listed the one that best meets the needs of the customers, it is easy to regulatory level and is convenient from a fiscal point of view.

In the current legislative system professional aggregation can be achieved not only with the associated study tool, but also through the creation of the Company among Professionals (Law 183/2011); however, the associated study remains the most widespread model .

However, this associative form has never found a real definition in our legislative system; not even when the law 1815/1939 was still in force . This law, repealed by L.183 / 2011 , indicated only the ban on the exercise in the company form of professional activity and the criteria regarding the name of the study, reciting to Art.1: "Persons who, having the necessary professional qualifications, or who are authorized to carry out specific activities by virtue of particular provisions of law, are associated for the exercise of the professions or other activities for which they are authorized or authorized, shall use, in the name of their office and in relations with third parties, exclusively the term "technical, legal, commercial, accounting, administrative or tax study", followed by the name and surname, with the professional titles of the single members. The associated exercise of the professions or of the other activities, according to the preceding paragraph, must be notified to the trade union organization from which the single members are represented ".

The text, therefore, did not provide a definition of associated study: it simply provided for the criteria for the associated exercise of the profession without explaining anything about the applicable discipline. The problem regarding the legal classification of the associated study remained unsolved.