Protection of Markets & Financial Intermediaries
The Firm handled the first insider dealing case and the most important alleged market manipulation case ever tried in Italy, and has engaged and engages in several insider trading and market manipulation cases.
In the area of criminal law protection of markets, the Firm also advises listed companies or companies about to be listed, as well as entities (including institutional ones) entering the Italian market, by giving opinions on extraordinary transactions or market disclosure.
The Firm assists and advises financial institutions, to which it also provides its professional services in regulatory and criminal law matters on issues concerning the exchange of sophisticated financial instruments as well as money laundering and usury.
Corporate Criminal Offences
The Firm has provided and provides advice on issues related to the criminal law implications of corporate disclosure or of specific extraordinary transactions, as well as assistance by engaging in some of the highest profile corporate crime trials.
Corporate Distress
Besides providing assistance in legal cases for bankruptcy offences (acting as counsel in the major trials on the subject), the Firm advises on the criminal law implications in situations of debt restructuring or preparation of plans and arrangements to overcome corporate distress, collaborating with leading law and consulting firms.
Corruption Offences
Since the 1990s, when it engaged in many of the legal cases resulting from the so-called “Mani Pulite” investigation, the Firm has acted as counsel in the most important national (Enimont, Ministry of Health, pharma case in Bari) and international trials (oil licenses in Algeria and Nigeria, contracts with the Indian army, Brazil’s Lava Jato).
Administrative Liability of Legal Entities (Legislative Decree No. 231/01)
The Firm permanently advises corporations and entities operating in various sectors (manufacturing, banking, insurance) for setting up and updating Compliance Programs, and some of its partners permanently advise the Supervisory Boards of leading banking and insurance institutions, as well as of sports associations. In this context, members of the Firm are called upon to provide training in pursuance of the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 231/01.
The Firm has also represented and represents accused entities, and principles of law regarding key issues (determination of the profit that can be confiscated, criteria for holding an entity liable for an act both in reference to the notion of interest and with regard to the charge of negligent offences) have been established during some of those trials.
The Firm has handled cases in which assistance had to be provided in connection with investigations by the SEC, DOJ, FCA and other foreign authorities.
Criminal Tax Law
The Firm handled the first permanent establishment (Udine 1999) and transfer pricing cases, as well as the dividend washing case in Pescara (2003), in which the Firm assisted some of the major US and Anglo-Saxon investment banks.
The Firm has engaged and engages in proceedings for breaches of the complex criminal tax legislation, advising and assisting clients in high-profile cases. The Firm’s advice has also been sought by some of the major US digital companies.
Environmental and Industrial Health and Safety Proceedings
Starting from the major cases in the 1970s (Seveso case) and thereafter (Cengio environmental disaster, Stava dam collapse, pollution and occupational disease cases related to the Marghera Petrochemical Plant and Taranto steelworks, disastrous events such as the Linate air crash or the railway accidents at the Piacenza and Viareggio stations), the Firm has assisted leading companies, also gaining specific experience in the selection of and collaboration with experts having different professional skills who must necessarily be involved in such issues.