Professor Lorenzo Stanghellini

Bio:

Lorenzo Stanghellini was born in Pistoia on October 12, 1963. He has been a Full Professor of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Florence since 2002.
He has also been practicing as a lawyer since 1990, and he is the founder of Studio legale Stanghellini & Associati, based in Florence (Via Cavour 80).
He has recently served as a member of the Group of Experts on restructuring and insolvency law advising the European Commission on a proposal for a Directive on preventive restructuring frameworks and second chance (the proposal was published on November 2016 and is currently advancing towards its enactment).
Lorenzo Stanghellini is member of the International Insolvency Institute. He is currently the coordinator of a research project, funded by the EU Commission under the JUST/2014/JCOO/AG Programme, entitled “Contractualised distress resolution in the shadow of the law: Effective judicial review and oversight of insolvency and pre-insolvency proceedings”. The project involves, besides the University of Florence, also other III members with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Bank of Italy, Elab-OCRI, and the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (details available at www.codire.eu).
Lorenzo Stanghellini graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florence in 1987 and was awarded the “Gaetano Castellano” prize for the best degree thesis in commercial law in the years 1986-1987. In 1995, he won the prize for young researchers awarded by the National Research Council (CNR) for his research on directors' liability (1995). In 1995, he obtained a Master in Laws (LL.M.) at Columbia University with the “Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar” honors.
He was International Visiting Professor at Columbia University School of Law from October to November 2016, and conducted researches as a visiting scholar in England (Cambridge 2003-2006 and Oxford 2007-2008) and in the USA (Columbia University 1997, University of California at Berkeley 2001, Stanford University 2009).
From 2000 to 2004, he has co-drafted the delegated law that led to the 2006 comprehensive reform of Italian insolvency law. In 2005-2006, he participated to the Ministerial Commission appointed to implement such delegated law and, in particular, coordinated the 3rd sub-group in charge of drafting new rules on judicial compositions with creditors, debtor’s discharge, and companies’ bankruptcy. He was also a member of a team set up by the Bank of Italy to review the classification of the Italian Republic in the "2008 Doing Business" report.
In 2015 he contributed to drafting the articles reforming the Italian Bankruptcy Act enacted under the Law Decree No. 83/2015, of June 27, 2015, which has introduced, among other things, measures to reduce the duration of bankruptcy liquidations, a mechanism similar to the UK scheme of arrangement and the French sauvegarde financière accélérée, the possibility of Chapter 11-style competing proposals and a shareholders’ cram-down tool in the judicial composition with creditors procedure (“concordato preventivo”). In July 2015 he was interviewed on the new measures by The Economist (www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21656720-legal-reforms-may-...).
In his capacity as a Professor at the University of Florence, he has taught student courses in Corporate Law, Insolvency Law, and Competition Law. He has also held seminars and lessons on the same subjects at the Bank of Italy (2002, 2008, 2013, 2015 and 2016), the European Commission (2003), the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge (2003 and 2004), the ISAE (2003 and 2007), the European University Institute (2004, 2005, 2014), Confindustria (2006), the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford (2008 and 2015), the Bocconi University (2004, 2007, 2010, 2015), Assonime (2008), CONSOB (2009), the EU Court of Justice (2009), the Consiglio Notarile di Milano [Board of Notaries of Milan], the Consiglio nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti e degli Esperti Contabili [National Board of Certified Public Accountants], Fondazione Cesifin “Alberto Predieri” (2010-2012), the Consiglio Nazionale Forense [Italian Bar Association], the Scuola Superiore dell’Avvocatura [High Institute for Attorneys] (2011 and 2014), the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura [General Magistrates' Council] (2008 and 2011), the Scuola Superiore della Magistratura [High Institute for Magistrates] (2013, 2014 and 2016), the 11th European Company and Financial Law Review Symposium, Copenhagen (2016), the EYES on Insolvency conference, Amsterdam (2017).
His book “Le crisi d’impresa fra diritto ed economia” [Corporate crises between law and economics] (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007) was included by the Club of Lawyers among the twelve “Libri dell’anno della scienza giuridica” [Legal science books of the year] (2008). His recent publications also include: “Resolution, bail-in and ordinary liquidation: the decision process” (2017), The Implementation of the BRRD in Italy and its First Test: Policy Implications (in Journal of Financial Regulation, 2016, 2, 154-161), “The reduction of share capital in a joint-stock company” (2016), “Banking Crises: the European Perspective” (2014) “The Judicial Composition with Creditors of Businesses to be Operated as a Going Concern” (2013), “Director's Duties and the Optimal Timing of Insolvency. A Reassessment of the ‘Recapitalize or Liquidate’” (2011), “The Alitalia Case and the Insolvency Procedures” (2010).
Since 2003, he has written for the well-known information website www.lavoce.info. He often collaborates with the financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, for which he has written several comments and leading articles on insolvency law, including “Preserving Going Concern is a Priority Goal for the Reformed Bankruptcy Law” (2012).
He is a member of the Associazione Disiano Preite for the study of business law, and of the group at the Bank of Italy in charge of co-leading (with the World Bank) the Thematic Working Group on “Law and the Economy – Insolvency and creditor/debtor regimes” established in the context of the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development.
Among the others, he advised Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena Group in the Parmalat insolvency and other insolvency disputes (claw-back actions and actions for "abusive lending"), a ECB-supervised bank in the context of its application for precautionary recapitalisation, Banca CR Firenze and Intesa SanPaolo Group on civil liability disputes, a bank in compulsory administrative winding-up in the claim against its declaration of insolvency (successful in April 2013; currently pending in the Italian Supreme Court), and advised several other companies on in-court and out-of-court debt restructurings.
From 2010 to 2015 he has been a member of the Supervisory Committee of Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (one of the largest Italian foundations). Recently, he acted as court-appointed commissioner of several companies and groups in concordato preventivo, and as Chairman of Credito Industriale Sammarinese from 2010 to 2012 (appointed by the extraordinary administrators of Banca Carim, as recommended by the Bank of Italy). He has been a member of the BoD and of the Executive Committee of a bank of the Intesa SanPaolo group from 1997 to 2012 and a member of the Supervisory Committee of two banks in extraordinary administration, appointed by the Bank of Italy, from 2006 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2015. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of directors of Banca Federico del Vecchio (appointed by the extraordinary administrators of Banca Etruria, as recommended by the Bank of Italy).
He is fluent in English and has intermediate command of French.