Founded in 2000 by lawyer Cesare Giordanengo, and now led by lawyer Guglielmo Giordanengo and lawyer Roberto Calleri di Sala, Studio Giordanengo Avvocati Associati is a historical excellence in Turin highly specialised in criminal law, with particular reference to corporate criminal law, an area of great relevance for business management. ‘As regulations increase and laws become more and more complex, companies need a qualified and reliable partner, able to offer high added-value preventive advice, so as to prevent possible criminal issues related to ordinary business management,’ states lawyer Guglielmo Giordanengo in this lengthy interview.
by Roberta Imbimbo

Lawyer Giordanengo, with what mission was Studio Giordanengo Avvocati Associati born?
The firm was set up with the ambitious goal of becoming an important and stable point of reference in the field of corporate criminal law; a challenge that has been met thanks to a specialised know-how and a team of professionals with consolidated expertise, able to offer qualified, reliable and customised advice, typical of large law firms, both to large corporations and to small and medium-sized companies operating throughout the country.
What peculiarities distinguish you from your competitors?
In order to gain a certain recognisability in the market, clearly differentiating itself from other players, since its foundation Studio Giordanengo has decided to focus its core activity on a specific, highly articulated and constantly evolving subject, which occupies an increasing space in judicial practice. And so, in a short time, this historical firm in Turin has become an innovative and future-oriented legal boutique, with a strong vocation for client-centricity, extremely structured to offer excellent, targeted and effective assistance, with high added and competitive value, both in and out of court. It is no coincidence that, over the years, we have received important awards and recognitions – since 2021 we have appeared in the list of the best law firms of the year drawn up by Il Sole 24 and Statista – which testify to our excellence and expertise in the most critical areas of corporate criminal law.
How has the figure of the criminal lawyer evolved in recent years? And how has Studio Giordanengo responded to this evolution?
In order to enable companies to navigate safely in the global legal landscape, with a strategic view to containing criminal risk, today a great deal of attention is paid to preventive consultancy, aimed precisely at preventing the commission of criminal offences in the exercise of business activities (so-called white collar crimes). The regulatory changes of the last few years in the area of compliance (231, environment, antitrust, labour, privacy, tax) have, moreover, contributed to accelerate the process of transformation of the role of the criminal lawyer, sensitising companies to pay more and more attention to criminal matters and, consequently, pushing them to rely on qualified partners, specialised in corporate criminal law, capable of facing unprecedented and highly complex challenges, which require immediate and effective decisions and responses. In order to respond to this evolution in demand, criminalists have necessarily had to diversify their work, which in the past was rooted almost exclusively in procedural and defensive activity, successfully opening up to preventive assistance; assistance that is no longer considered a reactive tool at the start of criminal proceedings, but is increasingly seen as a means of preventive and proactive action, to mitigate the risk of offences in the fields of health and safety, tax and taxation, privacy, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering, environment and 231. Today, the criminal lawyer, who is no longer a mere prosecutor, intervenes less and less in the judicial phase, after the facts have already occurred, but is increasingly involved in the governance of the company, supporting the board of statutory auditors and the board of directors or even being present in the supervisory bodies, with an internal control function on procedures and their correct application; through a detailed analysis of the company’s activities, it can in fact identify potential dangers and prepare compliance models to prevent the commission of offences, with the aim of avoiding years of criminal litigation for companies, with all that this entails also from a reputational (brand reputation) point of view.

Lately, there has been an increasing demand for consultancy on the subject of legislative decree 231/2001. Can you tell us about it?
As mentioned, interest focuses on the need to prevent offences – committed by directors, managers, employees or third party agents in the exercise of their duties and to the benefit of the company itself – by equipping the latter with an organisational model, known as a MOG (Organisation and Management Model), adequate and functional for preventing the risk of offence. In practice, the company could be liable not for the offence committed by the individual, but for not having done what was possible to avoid the offence itself, i.e. for having facilitated it through its organisational deficit. The adoption of Model 231, although not mandatory, is fundamental because it allows the company to prevent the commission of offences and limit its liability in terms of sanctions, avoiding the consequences that this would entail. This is the reason why especially large companies, the most structured ones, today increasingly feel the need to involve the criminal lawyer in the company’s physiological activity in order to prevent possible criminal issues related to ordinary business management.
So many achievements in all these years of activity. Future goals?
It is a future yet to be written, with the twofold hope of maintaining a strong presence in major criminal trials and further increasing the number of Italian companies to which we can offer preventive advice of the highest level.