Team size: 11    

Major legal advisers: BonelliErede, Parola Angelini, IPG Lex&Tax, Gebbia Bortolotto   

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

I encourage teamwork and we achieved impressive results in terms of innovation thanks to the involvement and contribution of all team members. In a couple of cases, we were able to make our legal and compliance processes more efficient and reduce overall spending by digitalising certain steps or tasks.  

With the support of our IT colleagues, we concentrated on creating a unique platform that contained information flows related to debt-collection cases, including data from ERP and CRM systems to automatise the assignment of files to external law firms.  

We also digitalised our KYC processes via a web platform, linked to our existing compliance databases, where prospective clients are invited to share relevant information, which contributes to the overall risk assessment and facilitates the onboarding of new counterparties. Due to the work done with the vendor to tailor the platform to our specific processes and the features of our typical counterparties, the overall results allowed us to improve our customers’ experience. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?   

First, the advent of new technologies will impact the general counsel’s role. AI is changing the way in which professional works. This will have an impact on law firms; for example, the mobilisation of huge teams for time and document intensive work like due diligence would not be necessary, but it will also have an impact on in-house departments, as certain tasks might be more efficiently assigned to machines. General counsel need to consider this to structure their teams to be more cost-efficient and possess new skills. 

General counsel will also need to attract and motivate talent, who are becoming more sensitive to non-monetary factors, to work for their companies. In addition to their traditional tasks, they will become chief coaches and motivators of their people.  

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company? 

In 2022 Axpo Italia voluntarily issued its first sustainability report to express its full commitment to ESG principles. As a primary operator of the energy market with a large portfolio of offtake contracts, Axpo Italia is in a unique position to offer to its corporate clients, viable solutions to make their consumption more sustainable and affordable and create conditions for investors in renewable resources to accelerate green investments.  

In terms of ESG processes, I am member of the ESG committee, and we have launched a process to involve our external stakeholders in a dedicated forum to jointly identify our next ESG targets. I believe that general counsel have a critical role in driving ESG processes and identifying new areas where stakeholders expect companies to take commitments 

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, you are passionate about, and why? 

I developed an interest for human rights and democratic processes. I believe that the principle of rule-of-law is essential to orderly and flourishing societies, as well as to dynamic and lively economies. I am member of Italiastatodidiritto, an association of law professionals that share a common goal of promoting such values and leading public initiatives in case where human rights are affected or threatened.