About

Maurizio Raffaini is the current legal affairs director of Neulift – a nationally developed company in the lift systems business owned by KONE Italy – having joined in 2017. As a member of the board of directors he has implemented a number of changes that have created continuous change and evolution within the legal department. ‘I strongly believe that it is essential to shift our role from purely legal work to more business focused responsibilities. While the in-house lawyer of the past would have been solely responsible for legal matters regarding the business, this is no longer the case’ says Raffaini. As a consequence, during his time in his role, he has increased the spectrum of duties and responsibilities of the legal department, including more business focused responsibilities as well as regulatory operational risk management. This broad spectrum of duties has created a rapid increase in the authority of the legal department which Raffaini admits has made the position more ‘complex and central than ever before’. Raffaini also recognises that the constantly evolving technology in his industry is both a challenge and a potential opportunity for the in-house lawyer and it is here where he pushes his colleagues to embrace innovations in technology, new service delivery models and increased operational cost efficiencies. Prior to his current role, Raffaini undertook the role of general counsel at Italian mail and e-commerce company Nexive, where he set up the legal department and reorganised the legal function with an excellent budget review. This was after several years spent in private practice, and a two year stint as group legal counsel at Manuli Rubber Industries. In 2016, he was awarded by an Italian corporate counsel magazine as “legal counsel of the year” in the category of “services and consultancies” and receives further recognition here for his outstanding in-house legal track record.