Luca is the founding partner of Arblit, an arbitration and litigation boutique in Milan.
He is also a Full Professor at the School of Law of the Università Cattolica di Milano, where he holds the chair of Private International Law and is the Director of the Institute of International Studies. He currently teaches also Law of International Arbitration and Transnational Commercial Law. In the course of his career as a tenured professor in several Italian universities since 1987 he also taught European Union law, public international law and competition law.
Luca is the author and editor or co-editor of six books and one commentary and over 100 articles published in Italian and international journals on issues of private international law, the law of arbitration, public international law, European Union law, competition law, telecommunications law, international financial law (Publications). He is a regular speaker at, and organizer of, academic and practitioners’ conferences, symposia, workshops and courses, in Italy and abroad. He is also the Vice President of the LCIA.
He has held the following teaching and research appointments: Lecturer at the Hague Academy of International Law, Private International Law Session (2003); Visiting fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge, England (1990 and 1995), and Max Planck Institut für Internationales und Ausländisches Privatrecht, Hamburg, Germany (1987); Visiting Professor, Institut d’Etudes Européennes of the Free University of Brussels (1991-92); Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School (1996; 2000 and 2002); Visiting Scholar, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley (1998 and 1999); Visiting Professor, University of Paris II (2007); Lecturer at the External Program of the Hague Academy of International Law in Buenos Aires (2012); Scholar in Residence at the Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law at New York University Law School (2014).
Luca’s professional experience began as a member of the Office of the Legal Advisor at the Bank for International Settlements (the “Bank of the Central Banks”) in Basel, Switzerland (1978-1984).
He then joined Chiomenti Studio Legale as an associate, then becoming partner and head of its Brussels office and of its International, European and Competition law department (1984-2000).
From 2001 to 2013 he was a partner at Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, where he was a member of the European/antitrust law and of the International Litigation and Arbitration practice groups; he was also in charge of the Dispute Resolution Desk of that firm’s London office.
In his three decades in two of Italy’s most prestigious firms and now as a founding partner of Arblit, Luca has advised and represented top private and public Italian and international clients (including the European Commission and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) in a broad variety of matters.
These have ranged from his areas of main academic specialization (conflicts of laws and jurisdictions and public international law) to banking and finance and all aspects of European Union law and competition law (mergers, cartels and abuses of dominant position, state aids, public procurement, telecommunications, energy, circulation of services and establishment, particularly in the area of financial services and telecommunications law). He was one of the first, and for many years of the most active and reputed, competition lawyers in Italy as evidenced by his rankings in the specialized publications. He was particularly involved in the initial phase of privatizations and liberalizations in Italy, having amongst others acted for the first private mobile telephone operator upon its entry into the Italian market. His activity as a competition lawyer and his involvement for his other areas of expertise in the transactions handled by his previous firms allowed him to gain experience in a variety of economic sectors and areas of law, including corporate and M&A transactions, energy, telecommunications, utilities, financial and regulated markets, gaming.
Luca, whose practice often benefits from his scholarly work, has appeared regularly before Italian courts, including the Council of State and the Constitutional Court, as well as the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, and administrative authorities (the European Commission and the Italian Competition Authority and telecom regulator). Luca has brought all this experience to bear in his arbitration and international litigation practice. He is one of Italy’s top arbitration specialists and is highly regarded abroad, also through his publications (which include an authoritative Commentary on arbitration law in Italy and writings in a variety of prestigious law reviews) and his activities in professional bodies, including the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, the International Bar Association and the International Law Association. He was the delegate for the Italian Government at the 33rd and 34th Sessions of the UNCITRAL Working Group on International Arbitration (2000 and 2001). Prior to forming Arblit, he was one of the spearheads of his previous firm’s prestigious arbitration practice.
He appears as counsel and sits as presiding, sole and party appointed arbitrator in ad hoc and institutional domestic and international arbitrations under a variety of rules and governing laws (Geneva Chamber of Commerce, ICC, LCIA, Milan Chamber of Arbitration, Stockholm Arbitration Chamber, Danish Institute of Arbitration, Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Milan, UNCITRAL, Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, European Development Fund). He has significant expertise in investment arbitration, having been involved as counsel in several high profile ICSID arbitrations, including as counsel for the successful claimant in Saipem v. Bangladesh and in two pending cases brought by Italian holders of Argentine bonds against the Republic of Argentina, Alemanni and others v. Argentina and Ambiente Ufficio and others v. Argentina (in the latter of which the ICSID tribunal rendered a favorable decision on jurisdiction).
He also acts as advisor and counsel in transnational court litigation, with a particular focus on issues of public international law and of conflicts of laws and jurisdiction. He appears as an expert on Italian law, arbitration law and competition law in proceedings before arbitral tribunals and foreign courts. In the past he advised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in connection with litigation before the Iran-US Claims Tribunal.
Luca is a leading expert on the interactions between arbitration and competition and merger control law, as well as in private antitrust litigation.
