Withers Studio Legale

Claudio Giordano

Claudio is of counsel in our corporate team primarily based in Padua. He has long-standing experience in domestic and international matters, including general corporate, M&A and private equity transactions. He is a member of the board of directors of several Italian companies based in the Veneto area active in various business sectors, all of which deal extensively in the international arena. Claudio has also been for many years a close personal advisor to a number of leading entrepreneurial families in the region, assisting them with their business and personal wealth planning.

Cristina Pagni

Christina is a partner in our dispute resolution team in Milan.Her practice focuses predominantly on domestic and cross border commercial disputes, with extensive experience in financial services, insolvency and insurance litigation. Cristina is a well-known figure in the Italian market, acting for financial institutions and corporate entities, as well as HNW families and individuals. She has a deep knowledge of the local judiciary and legal market combined with the skills to manage complex cross-border litigation and arbitration, and deal with the challenges such work can bring. She has long been recognized as being an important player in the market with a strong reputation for domestic and international litigation and arbitration and a top-notch experience in domestic and cross-border insurance, asset recovery and aviation litigation. She is a frequent speaker at professional events on insurance and topical issues in managing complex litigation. Cristina is member of the steering and the scientific committees of the International Association of Insurance Law (Associazione Internazionale di Diritto delle Assicurazioni – AIDA) and regularly serves as a member of arbitration panels including those of the main International Arbitration Chambers. Cristina has been reconfirmed as Independent Director of De Longhi SpA. She has also been confirmed as President of the Independent Directors’ Committee and of the Remuneration and Appointments Committee and appointed Member of the Risk and Control, Corporate.

Filippo Molinari

Filippo is a practising Italian commercialista and a partner in our private client and tax team. Filippo’s core focus lies on tax issues relating to individuals, family business restructuring, as well as taxation of sports and entertainment personalities. He assists Italian, foreign HNWIs and high net worth families with estate planning, real estate investments, family wealth management, trust structures and issues concerning international and corporate taxation. Filippo’s proven track record also spans clients wishing to benefit from the Italian flat tax regime, inbound workers regime and other tailored tax incentives for individuals relocating to Italy. He has also garnered select expertise in assisting private clients with procedures to regularise assets and foreign held income. Moreover, Filippo has handled and assisted with tax issues pertaining to philanthropy and non-profit entities.

Giulia Cipollini

Giulia is a partner in the private client and tax team in Milan.Her areas of specialism include corporate and personal Italian and international tax, tax compliance and transparency (voluntary disclosure), tax litigation and tax rulings before the Italian Tax Authorities. In addition, Giulia assists with inheritance tax planning and is particularly knowledgeable inthe taxation of trusts. Giulia is considered a point of reference in connection with the fashion and art industry as well as for the relocation of international families (including their tax and estate planning). Geographically, her key areas of expertise for HNWIs relocating to Italy includes, among others, Latin America, Israel, US. Her clients include high-net-worth Italian and foreign individuals, sports personalities, collectors and creative individuals, as well as major international brands and corporates with offices in Italy. As a result of her pioneering work when the programme was first announced in 2017, Giulia and her team have become a market leader in assisting clients and their family offices wishing to take advantage of Italy's non-dom tax regime.  In this respect, Giulia has been a key speaker representing Italy before the Italian Embassy in Washington, the Italian Consulate in New York and Miami, presenting together with Government representatives the Italian non-dom regime and its main features. She has been instrumental in developing and boosting the Arts advisory practice in our Milan office, providing clients with sophisticated tax advice.

Guido Galeotti

Guido is a partner in the corporate team in Milan. Guido has a transactional focus, with over 25 years of consolidated experience across various industrial sectors, particularly in the chemical, manufacturing, environmental, and energy sectors. He has successfully concluded numerous corporate transactions, including multi-jurisdictional acquisitions, coordinating national and international teams, corporate mergers, group reorganizations, investment agreements, and shareholders' agreements. His clients come from all over the world and are industry leaders. Guido also oversees projects for the redevelopment of industrial areas, decommissioning contracts, establishing new plants for renewable energy production, negotiating environmental agreements, and guarantees for managing environmental liabilities in connection with company acquisitions, businesses, and industrial sites. Guido also has extensive experience in procedures for remediating sites contaminated by historical and current pollution, while also providing environmental compliance services. His entire activity is characterized by a deal-making approach combined with profound legal expertise.  

Jacopo Liguori

Partner

Luca Ferrari

Luca is a partner in our corporate team and heads the sports practice worldwide. He established his professional practice as an advisor to private companies active in global markets, acting often as trusted advisor in relation to strategies for structuring and growing an international business. Over the years, his practice has spanned the core sectors of the Italian economy, such as fashion, design and especially wine, an industry in which he has gained a reputation as one of the most experienced lawyers acting for Italian household names in foreign markets. As a business lawyer with an international education and background, from the beginning of his professional career Luca has dedicated himself to sports law and the sport industry. In addition to assisting corporate clients, such as sponsors, manufacturers of sportswear and equipment, sports marketing agencies and media companies, Luca has become a trusted advisor to athletes, coaches, managers and agents. As the firm’s global head of sports, Luca leads a team of lawyers based in Withers’ main offices in Europe, the USA and Asia, offering highly specialised sport-related regulatory, legal and tax services in relation to high profile transactions including, sponsorships, international transfers of players, playing contracts, management contracts, direct investments and licensing of audio-visual rights. He was included in Sport Business International’s “World’s 20 most influential lawyers” feature and in the top three ranking of the ‘top 20’ feature of the same directory. In 2020 Italian legal directory, TopLegal, recognised him as ‘Lawyer of the Year – Sports Practice’ at the TopLegal Industry Awards.

Matilde Rota

Matilde is a partner in our litigation and arbitration team. Matilde focuses on the sports sector and represents clubs, athletes, agents and institutions in matters involving major dispute resolution bodies, such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Italian Federal National Tribunal, the Italian Federal Court of Appeal, and the CONI Sports Arbitration Panel. She also specialises in commercial and banking transactions. Her work focuses on judicial proceedings and strategies and often involves the application of international conventions and European laws in relation to the choice of jurisdiction and the enforcement of foreign judgments. She represents Italian companies in matters of civil litigation such as product liability, contract and credit recovery.

Mattia Biasi

Mattia is a partner in our corporate team. He advises on Italian commercial law and international contract law and assists Italian clients in relation to their commercial interests as well as international clients investing in Italy. He assists in particular on M&A transactions with a real estate focus and has also gained considerable experience in dealing with commercial lease agreements and other contractual relationships pertinent to the retail sector. He has also worked in Withers' London office where he advised several international investors with their purchase of high end property in Italy, both commercial and residential.

Roberta Crivellaro

Roberta is Managing Partner of Withers in Italy, European leader of the Business Division and head of our 'Italian Desks' worldwide. She specializes in cross-border corporate, commercial and real estate transactions in many different business sectors, such as Food and Wine, Luxury, Fashion and Furniture. She is a point of reference in the Italian market for transactions involving family offices or family businesses with a particular focus on corporate reorganization issues and generational business transitions. She worked for many years in London, where she qualified as a solicitor, and became the first Italian woman to become a partner in a City Law Firm. She is now among the very few managing partners of a business law firm in Italy. In 2024 Forbes Italy mentions her among the top 100 consulting professionals in Italy. Since 2019, she has been listed among Italy's Best-50 lawyers in the Italian legal directory LegalCommunity and in 2020 was recognised for having contributed to the increase in the number of women managing partners, a momentous change in the Italian legal market, historically led by men.

Roberto Bonomi

Roberto is a practising Italian commercialista and a partner within our private client and tax team. He focuses on taxation of individuals and trusts, as well as taxation of financial income and digital assets. Roberto acquired an extensive expertise in the protection of family assets, in inheritance tax planning as well as in the tax compliance of foreign assets, (e.g. RW Form, W-8 BEN, FBAR). He assists HNWIs, sport personalities, talents, artists in their international tax planning. His recent work has focused on cross-border activities for private clients between Italy and the USA, as well as increasingly in Latin America and Israel. He has developed an in depth knowledge of the main tax aspects connected with private luxury assets: yachts, private jets, co-ownership agreements, etc. Roberto co-heads the Israel SIG and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Crypto & Digital Assets SIG. Over the years, he has developed a specific focus on employee incentives & benefits, such as, carried interest for executive fund managers, stock options, RSUs, including tokens and crypto-based incentives. He is also a member of the task force dedicated to assisting clients wishing to take advantage of the new Italian 'non-dom' tax system as well as other specific tax incentives for individuals relocating to Italy (e.g. the "impatriati" and retirees regime).

Sergio Anania

Sergio Anania is a partner in the corporate department and is based in our Milan office. Sergio advises companies and banks – both Italian and international – on mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions related to the sale of non-performing assets and mortgage loans of banks and reorganizations, both domestic and international. Over the years, Sergio has gained considerable experience in the banking sector in acquisition finance and project finance. Recently, he has also been involved in a number of debt restructuring transactions assisting both companies and banks. Sergio also advises Italian family companies and family offices on the issuance of Italian minibonds and has recently served as an Administrator in a US probate proceeding. Since 2018, he has been advising a series of participants in the start-up sector, as well as collaborating successfully with two major international accelerators in connection with their challenging projects . As a result, he is now recognised as a point of reference in the Italian start-up world.

Stefano Cignozzi

Stefano is a partner in our corporate team in Milan.  He focuses on acquisitions, extraordinary transactions and corporate nance activities, advising industrial clients and private equity funds on anational and international basis.Stefano also provides assistance on corporate and commercial matters for private equity investors, multinationals and private companies.He has also acquired considerable experience in the banking sector, providing assistance with setting up credit facilities for ordinary fnance, project finance and debt restructuring processes.