Criminal liability is no longer an incidental risk of doing business. It has become an inherent component of economic activity. In an increasingly layered, evolving, and often inconsistent regulatory landscape, companies can no longer afford merely to react to crises—they must learn to anticipate them.
Against this backdrop, the role of the corporate criminal lawyer has undergone a profound transformation. No longer simply the advocate called upon to provide technical defence in court, the modern corporate criminal lawyer has become a strategic adviser who helps design the legal safeguards that underpin an organisation’s resilience.
The professional journey of Chiara Tebano, who entered the profession in the early 1990s when business criminal law was still a highly specialised field, mirrors this evolution. From the Mani Pulite investigations to the rise of corporate criminal liability, her career has closely followed the changing relationship between business and criminal law.
By Roberta Imbimbo
Ms. Tebano, what is the role of the corporate criminal lawyer today?
In today’s highly complex legal environment, criminal risk is inherent in business activity. It is no longer confined to deliberate fraud or intentional misconduct. It may arise from inadequate organisational structures, management errors, or poorly designed corporate processes.
In this context, the corporate criminal lawyer works alongside businesses on a daily basis. The role is no longer limited to responding when problems emerge; it increasingly involves helping companies build the systems needed to prevent those problems from arising in the first place.
So the focus has shifted from emergency response to prevention?
Precisely.
Take manufacturing companies, for example, which are naturally exposed to environmental offences and workplace health and safety liabilities. Or consider a business experiencing early signs of financial distress: decisions taken without considering their potential criminal implications may later give rise to bankruptcy charges should insolvency eventually be declared.
The reality is that criminal risk often lies hidden within ordinary business decisions. That is precisely why continuous legal oversight is essential.
Your career began in a very different legal landscape.
Indeed. In the early 1990s, business criminal law was still largely unexplored. I graduated in 1992 with a dissertation on insider trading under the supervision of Professor Franco Bricola, at a time when the subject attracted very limited attention.
Then came the Mani Pulite investigations, which exposed deeply rooted and often distorted relationships between politics and the business community.
How significant was that period?
It was transformative.
At the time, the primary focus was on offences against public administration. For someone at the beginning of their career, it represented an extraordinary learning experience.
More importantly, it marked the beginning of a process that has never stopped: the steady expansion of criminal law into the sphere of economic activity and, more recently, the increasing use of highly intrusive judicial measures affecting businesses, including judicial administration and the various forms of asset confiscation.
Has that evolution now reached maturity?
The introduction of new criminal offences—and the revision of existing ones—is an ongoing process, although not always a coherent one. Bankruptcy law provides a clear example. Italy’s new Insolvency Code has profoundly reformed the civil framework governing corporate crises, yet the criminal offences relating to bankruptcy have, at least for the time being, remained substantially unchanged. It remains one of the most technically complex and sensitive areas of business criminal law.
Has case law attempted to bridge this gap?
I believe the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) deserves considerable credit for its consistent efforts to identify only those forms of conduct that genuinely warrant criminal sanctions. This approach has been evident not only in bankruptcy law but also in other important areas, such as workplace accidents, where the Court has developed fundamental principles aimed at preserving the essential requirement of legal certainty and the strict definition of criminal offences.
What about the other areas of business criminal law?
The overall picture remains uneven.
In tax law, major reforms continue to be announced but repeatedly postponed.
Environmental criminal law, by contrast, has expanded significantly, increasing companies’ exposure to criminal liability.
As for workplace health and safety, the legal framework remains largely based on well-established principles, although lower courts often continue to attribute particularly broad responsibilities to senior corporate executives.
How important is corporate liability today?
Extremely important. Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 fundamentally changed the legal paradigm by extending liability beyond individuals to corporate entities themselves. The list of predicate offences continues to expand. Nevertheless, when properly designed and effectively implemented, organisational compliance models can become valuable instruments both for managing business processes and preventing criminal offences.
Are all businesses ready to embrace this approach?
Not yet. Large corporations generally have dedicated compliance structures, whereas small and medium-sized enterprises often continue to perceive compliance systems as little more than an additional cost.
This is where the real challenge lies: helping businesses understand that prevention is not merely a bureaucratic burden but, when properly implemented, an effective form of protection—for both the company and the people working within it.
Moreover, the preparatory work required to develop an organisational model frequently leads to more efficient internal processes.
What message would you like to convey to businesses?
Criminal risk, like any other form of business risk, must be managed.
It cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can—and should—be understood, assessed, and governed consciously.
Achieving this requires sound organisational structures, effective compliance mechanisms, and continuous dialogue with specialised legal counsel.
And what role does the corporate criminal lawyer play within this framework?
The corporate criminal lawyer has become a strategic partner.
Beyond providing legal defence in increasingly sophisticated and specialised litigation, they draw upon their courtroom experience and deep understanding of legislation and case law to support business decision-making before disputes ever arise.
Isn’t that an ambitious view? Is a corporate criminal lawyer always necessary?
I would describe it as a realistic one. The point is not that every company should have a criminal lawyer permanently on-site. Rather, criminal law expertise should be integrated into corporate governance and decision-making processes. Today, ignoring criminal risk is far more costly—economically and socially—than managing it. In a complex economy, where the line between error and criminal misconduct has become increasingly blurred, the corporate criminal lawyer is no longer a professional called upon only in times of crisis. Increasingly, they serve as an early-warning sentinel—and, in many cases, the discreet architect of a fragile but essential balance: that between entrepreneurial freedom and corporate accountability.
