Who We Are
The power of curiosity – Anna Guilia Chiarugi, Head of Legal at Sosteneo
Recent alumni Anna Giulia Chiarugi is Head of Legal at Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners, an asset management company specialising in greenfield infrastructure investments that produce clean energy or enable clean energy use.
Anna Giulia’s Ashurst years
Anna Giulia went to university in her home town of Pisa, before moving to Genoa to pursue her legal career. A few months after passing the Bar exam in 2016, she joined the then relatively small team in Ashurst’s Milan office.
While she was part of Ashurst’s Restructuring team, Anna Giulia also had the opportunity to work with other teams, including Energy and Infrastructure. This gave her exposure to many areas of the law, including corporate and financial restructuring, energy and infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, banking, and structured finance.
At Ashurst, Anna Giulia worked on several notable matters, including a major cross-border real estate transaction in the southern Santa Giulia area of Milan for Lendlease, the partnership for the acquisition of Sorgenia, and the investment of Aviva Investors in an Italian renewable energy platform.
The Aviva transaction created one of her most memorable moments at the firm. “We barely slept the night before we closed that deal and then we barely slept the following night too because we were out celebrating with our clients and the counterparties. It was tiring, but a lot of fun!"
Anna Giulia also said she valued her direct experience of Ashurst ‘outpacing change’ as the Milan office grew from 14 to 70 lawyers during the seven years she was with the firm.
Her move in-house
In early 2024, Anna Giulia undertook a secondment as the interim Head of Legal at Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners. By June, she’d been appointed to the role full time.
Anna Giulia now leads a small team and oversees all legal aspects of the firm’s operation and its fund, including asset project financing, cross-border M&A transactions, development and construction contracts management and legal compliance.
“I started to realise that I was interested in moving to an in-house role about three years ago, because I was curious about the decisions behind the project transactions we worked on and what came next,” said Anna Giulia. “However, I also wanted to gain more experience at Senior Associate level and wait for the right role for me. When the opportunity at Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners came up, it ticked all the boxes for me because it was a Head of Legal role based in Milan that offered interesting work in a sector I’m passionate about. I also feel like I'm making an active contribution to reducing carbon emissions and achieving the energy transition, which I am passionate about.”
Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners was established in 2022 by four founding partners, alongside Generali Investments. The firm received regulatory authorisation from the Bank of Italy in 2023. While it is a young company, the team has a wealth of investment management and energy sector expertise and is motivated by the common goal of delivering attractive, long-term commercial returns through energy infrastructure projects that actively contribute to the decarbonisation of the global energy system.
As Anna Giulia explained, “Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions and raising sustainability awareness by investing in, developing and constructing renewable energy projects across Europe and Australia. The firm also ensures the supply chain behind its developments and projects comply with ESG requirements.”
Anna Giulia said the biggest change on moving to her in-house role is that she is now more integrated with business operations and more involved in strategy and decision making, which are experiences she “definitely enjoys”. For anyone thinking of making a similar move, Anna Giulia’s advice is to “stay curious”.
“By being part of the growing team at Ashurst Milan, I was lucky enough to gain broad experience. That really helps me in my current role, because I know how to navigate complex legal landscapes, spot potential issues, and engage effectively with external lawyers when I need them. Being on the other side of the fence has given me a new appreciation of just how important it is for clients to work with lawyers who understand the complexity and dynamics of their business”, said Anna Giulia.
And when she’s not working?
Anna Giulia took up skiing at the age of 30, after being surrounded by many passionate skiers at Ashurt Milan. She now loves the sport and treasures the memories she has of joining her Ashurst colleagues on some of the best slopes in Italy, France and Switzerland.
Anna Giulia also loves spending hours reading books (on her couch or on a sunbed by the beach or in the mountains) and is a big fan of John Steinbeck and Emmanuel Carrère. She also admits to indulging in her "embarrassing" twin pleasures of listening to Italian rap music and watching trash TV.
