Ten Stories of Ordinary Success
THE ALUMNI OF THE BOCCONI SCHOOL OF LAW ARE A TALENTED AND DIVERSE BUNCH: AN ALUMNA BECAME MAGISTRATE AT THE AGE OF 25, ANOTHER DEALS WITH COMPETITION LAW IN BRUSSELS, AN ALUMNUS HAS SPECIALIZED IN LABOR LAW AND ENDED UP AT ILO. NOT TO MENTION THE ALUMNA EXPANDING HER LAW FIRM THANKS TO BREXIT, THE ARBITRATOR WORKING IN NEW YORK, OR THE PROFESSOR AT A JAPANESE UNIVERSITY WHO ALSO TRANSLATES MANGA COMICSAlberto Alemanno
How I seek to democratize lobbying
"Anyone, even a simple citizen or an organization can, indeed must, be able to influence the decision-making process, at local, national, EU levels. In sum, anyone can make democracy better”. Alberto Alemanno, PhD in International Law and Economics at Bocconi, is Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris. He is also the founder of The Good Lobby, a non-profit organization committed to making European society more democratic, united and equitable. with headquarters in Brussels and branches in cities around the world.
"Our goal is to democratize lobbying as a form of participation in public life, in particular with regard to fundamental issues such as social justice, environmental protection and the fight against corruption", explains Alemanno, who wrote a report on the subject. book, Lobbying for Change, which will also be available in Italian starting next summer. "Our business, for which we make use of the collaboration of university professors and law firms, unfolds along two lines", continues Alemanno, "on the one hand providing strategic consulting to organizations, foundations and enlightened companies, on the other providing custom training, through a sort of advocacy academy, for those who are preparing to meet the representatives of the institutions ”. But there is also another aspect that is very important to Alemanno: "This initiative shows that the range of action for law graduates has greatly expanded, there are no longer only the traditional professions of attorney or notary. We can make a difference in many ways, even at an international level”.
Giulia Astuti
Why I have chosen to communicate competition
At least three reasons led Giulia to Bocconi: the desire to attend an innovative degree course in law, with an economic approach and a strong openness to the world of work; the desire to have an experience away from home; and her Bocconian dad. Giulia Astuti, from Rome, Bocconi Class of 2011, is today Press Officer for Competition at the European Commission in Brussels, an environment she entered for the first time while still a student, during an internship. "I did not have, at least at the beginning, a specific competence in this area", says Giulia, "but the three-month internship, extended by another three months, and then my first job experience in an international law firm, allowed me to grow one. So I did a specific master's degree in London, then returned to Brussels to work at another law firm”. After two and a half years, Giulia Astuti got a contract with the Commission's Directorate of Competition, and then a position opened at the press office: "An opportunity that I seized on the fly for it allows me to use my specific competence in competition law in addition to my media relations skills. The dossiers which we have study and communicate are often very technical, and they must be understood well in order to be communicated effectively ". Giulia Astuti's future does not foresee abrupt changes, at least not in the short term: “I really like Brussels, I like working for the Commission and in the area of market competition. I am very satisfied with my choice of life and career, even if I don't exclude another path in the future”.
Jole Bertone
After Bahrain I chose a managerial career
It must have been the American TV series she watched as a child, the one in which lawyers are heroic figures. The fact is that Jole Bertone, now Compliance Director for Financial Crimes & Data Protection at Deloitte, "in practice the one who is entrusted with upholding corporate image from the point of view of compliance with laws and regulations", decided to study law when she was attending fifth grade and has never changed her mind since. "I was fascinated by the ideal of justice, the one with a capital J. And I chose Bocconi because, compared to the rest of Itay's often overcrowded law faculties, it guaranteed a more tightly-knit environment, international openness and, something I only appreciated this later, contiguity with economic subjects". Jole graduated in 2004 (she also has earned an LLM in London) and for a while she stayed at the university as research collaborator of Federico Ghezzi, “a very important figure for my training, with his unconventional approach to law, in particular on antitrust issues". Her professional experiences have been many and varied, both in professional firms, "which taught me a lot, especially to devote myself entirely to the projects I had to follow", and in Italian and international public authorities, "I was a legal counsel for one year of the authority of Bahrain ”, and in companies, such as Vodafone. In 2016 I joined Deloitte: "They called me to offer me a position of compliance manager, a new and challenging role for me. The task entrusted to me was to create, from scratch, a compliance office for some of the Italian companies that are Deloitte's clients. A task that has now expanded into a division. In practice, my role is to supervise and develop global compliance programs for Italy, Greece and Malta, as well as the entire EMEA area. It’s a position that allows me use my academic training and manage a business reality with a strong corporate culture".
Valerio De Stefano
My work is jobs
An area, that of labor law, in which you can really make a difference. "For the sake of individuals, when I was a lawyer, for society in a larger sense now that I am a university professor and research is a fundamental part of my activity". Valerio De Stefano, from Calabria, graduated in Law from Bocconi in 2006. "The University had attracted me for its innovative program in Law with presence of non-legal subjects", is now Professor of Labor Law at the University of Louvain, Belgium, after a career path that saw him start as a lawyer for a large international firm, and a PhD at Bocconi where he remained with various positions from 2001 to 2014, until he joined the United Nations, at the International Labor Office in its Geneva headquarters: “A truly prestigious call, always linked to my research in labor law, an issue that is changing and growing in complexity every day, under the pressure of economic changes and the development of new technologies. I stayed there until 2017, then I felt the desire to return to academia to put my doctorate to good use”. An issue that of employment and technology, to which De Stefano, together with his colleague Antonio Aloisi, also a Bocconian and assistant professor at the IE Law School in Madrid, has dedicated a book, Your Boss Is an Algorithm: “It is the result of years of research on these topics, written for a vast audience, not necessarily employment professionals. The volume wants to stimulate a debate on a sensitive question for the future of work which the pandemic has made dramatically current”.
Cecilia Gozzoli
What luck to be a lawyer in London in the Brexit era
We constantly talk about the difficulties that Brexit has created for Italians living in London for work and study reasons. Fortunately, this is not the case for everyone. Cecilia Gozzoli, from Modena, graduated in Law in 2003, got her specialization at the School of Legal Professions in 2005 and then a Master in Law at the LSE, has been living in London since 2007. She opened there a law firm in 2012, Gozzoli Solicitors, which has also an Italian branch, and the firm has seen its range of action expand enormously after the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union: "Originally, we dealt almost exclusively with assisting Italian tech companies that wanted te set up shope in the UK", explains Cecilia Gozzoli, “now we also work with international investors, we deal with real estate transactions and carry out a whole series of obligations that in Italy would be the prerogative of notaries”. As an expert in English law in a situation in which the UK legal system has become separate from the European one, there is an increasing need for her skills: "For some months I have been collaborating with the Italian Trade Agency, an entity created by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, precisely to give support to companies that want to start a business in the UK. The rules have changed and if they have to extricate themselves on their own, it is complex”.
Federica Pantana
My passions? Living in New York and dealing with legal arbitration
She is involved in multi-million dollar disputes, which sometimes can last a year. With major international customers. Federica Pantana, who graduated from Bocconi in 2011, got her Master in Arbitration and International Law at New York University, and now lives and works in New York City, where she has been dealing with arbitration, an old passion of hers, at SAPG Legal for over two years. Like that for the United States, where she spent months in Texas for as a Bocconi exchange student. "Arbitration and international law, with particular reference to business law, are the specializations I have pursued since my years at Bocconi, in particular attending the lectures of with Prof. Giorgio Sacerdoti, with whom I have always remained in contact throughout the years”. But not only that. Federica Pantana is also one of the founders of the Bocconi Students International Law Society, the student association that focuses on debating perspectives in international law. Her career path took also different turns, "in other fields of law, both in New York and in London, where I was involved in capital markets". But now she has returned to what she is most passionate about. “I am currently involved in three different arbitration procedures”, says Federica , “which generally take a very long time. It is all based on the concept of agreement between the parties. If there is a commercial dispute between two international companies, the parties choose an arbitration chamber, which will be responsible for resolving the issue. My role is to represent one of the parties in the dispute resolution process".
Giovanni Ricci
Law is a family tradition
A grandfather who was a notary grandfather, a father who is a lawyer, so for Giovanni Ricci (who graduated in 2004) the legal professions were in a certain sense a foregone destiny. He wasn't pushed into into it. "I have never considered studying anything else, and when the time came to apply for a university program I thought of Bocconi for its overall reputation and the quality of its faculty, Piergaetano Marchetti and Mario Notari in particular". And he also chose Bocconi, because the program in law was a novelty for the university headquartered in via Sarfatti, and the numbers were small, so that in class it felt a bit like high school. Today Giovanni Ricci is a lawyer and notary, "I took the related courses and state exams, becoming attorney in 2007 and notary in 2011". He currently practices the latter profession: "As public notaries, we have to deal with a little bit of everything", he says, "but what distinguishes my firm is a strong competence in corporate law. In particular, we work a lot with real estate investment funds, which we assist in the delicate phase of the purchase procedure. It is a choice that derives from my passion for law gained during my university studies and also helped by my grounding in economic subjects, something that only Bocconi offered law students at the time".
Michela Riminucci
Japan, manga and university: my career outside the box
A degree in oriental languages and then, in 2013,a degree in law from Bocconi. An unconventional study curriculum, just as her career is now. Michela Riminucci, from Ravenna, is Associate Professor at the University of Kobe, Japan, where she went immediately after graduation. “Since October 2018 I have become the coordinator of the cross-disciplinary programs, in particular the Master's program of Economic and Legal Studies. In the beginning, teaching and overseeing students took up most of my time, while in recent years I have become more involved in the administrative/management side of multidisciplinary programs and related events/courses, while remaining active in the teaching of the my research subject, which is comparative labor law ”. But not only that. Michela Riminucci also collaborates with the Pavia & Ansaldo international law firm, "which makes me assist transactions that require knowledge of the Japanese and Italian languages and laws", she explains, "and I work as a translator for Feltrinelli and Star Comics, for which I have translated over 300 manga comic stories”. A hybrid career, as she herself explains, which she has pursued since her student years: "I went to Classical high school in Italy, but took experimental subjects. Then oriental languages and finally jurisprudence, opting for Bocconi because at the time it was the only program offering good foundations in economics while preparing students for the practice of law, as well as courses in English. On balance, I work almost daily in four different fields (administrative/management, academic/teaching, legal advice, translation) and in three different languages (Japanese, English, Italian) and I don't think I would be able to do so, if I had received a conventional education".
Andrea Tel
I prevent my company's new products from going up in smoke
The industry in which it operates is one of the most regulated in the world, always kept under a watchful eyes by public opinion, media operators and consumer associations. Andrea Tel, who graduated in 2010, is Senior Legal Counsel, D2C, for British American Tobacco, the largest international cigarette group, a position he got July last year. "I am in charge of following the marketing strategy of a series of new product categories that the company is about to launch especially across online channels", explains Andrea Tel, "in particular ensure that the initiatives are in line with EU regulations and those of individual member countries. But not only that. They must also comply with the company's internal policy, which is very strict". His is a delicate position, given the attention and concern there is towards this type of products: "If we do something wrong, we are promptly caught red-handed". During his still young career, Andrea also worked and studied in Brussels, London, Madrid, gaining a series of experiences that have a common matrix: "European law, in particular competition and international trade. Both at the Commission and in the law firms where I worked, I have always dealt with this. I believe all of this is the result of the approach you are imparted at Bocconi: thanks to its international openness and strong focus on firms and markets, it gives you the tools to succeed not only in Italy but also abroad".
Maddalena Torelli
I became a judge at 25, a dream come true
A career marked by precociousness, "which is byproduct of the Bocconi method, with which the risk of not graduating in the allotted time is minimal". Maddalena Torelli, from Apulia and 40 years old, is today a a criminal judge at the Court of Lecce. But at 25 years old she already had the title of "magistrate" on her business card, so much so that she was awarded as the youngest judge in Italy at the time of her appointment. After passing a competition in which 12,000 people presented themselves at the written exam. And just over 300 passed. "I chose Bocconi because, despite the introduction of the degree in law being fairly recent, the University with its prestige and preparation guaranteed me many more opportunities, in case my first option, the judiciary, had not gone through." And she has never regretted it, right from that famous concours: “At Bocconi you had to write many term papers, and this helped me a lot. Furthermore, the limited number of students compared to other universities made it possible to follow classes very well". And even now, when the career has definitely gained momentum, the ties with the alma mater remain strong: "After an internship in Lecce, I spent three and a half years in Crotone as a labor judge and then I returned again to Apulia. In my current position, among other things, I happen to deal with economic crime, as in the case of the seizure of assets from organized criminal rings. Having also studied economic subjects, and therefore being able to read a balance sheet, is one of the greatest advantages that I can put in place when I have to make a judicial decision".
A Truly European Giurist
by Davide Ripamonti
