Education and academic research

Degrees

Bachelor's degree in Administration Sciences (class 19, judicial operator curriculum) — University of Siena, Faculty of Political Science. Awarded on 7 October 2005 with a mark of 110/110.

Bachelor's degree in Legal Sciences (class 31) — Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Ravenna campus. Awarded on 14 July 2008 with a mark of 110 cum laude.

Master's degree in Law (class LMG/01) — Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Ravenna campus. Awarded on 26 October 2009 with a mark of 110 cum laude.

During his academic career, the University of Bologna conferred on the principal the award of "Best Student of the academic course" for the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008.

Documents — degrees and awards

• Administration Sciences (Siena, 2005): Diploma · Certificate (EN)
• Legal Sciences (Bologna-Ravenna, 2008): Diploma · Exam certificate · Thesis
• Master's degree in Law (Bologna-Ravenna, 2009): Diploma · Certificate (EN) · Thesis — Defensive investigations
• Best Law Student awards: 2006-2007 · 2007-2008

The path through the exams

The academic path was undertaken at thirty-nine years of age, while serving in the Carabinieri, with a year of unpaid leave and study filling every free moment for its entire duration, so as to complete in under four years a course ordinarily lasting five, with more exams than required. A deliberate choice to reinvest all his energies in education, at the origin of the twofold competence — operational and academic — that characterises the firm today.

The timeline of the exams

From enrolment to the master's degree: each dot is an exam; the large dots with a number are the double- or triple-exam days; in gold, the exams taken during the semester at the University of Oklahoma.

Every exam, grade by grade

Click on each heading below to open the full list of exams, with the grade obtained in each.

International training

Spring 2009 — Visiting Student at the College of Law of the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK), attending the courses in Criminal Procedure (Prof. Meg Penrose), Criminal Law (Prof. Coyne) and Evidence (Prof. Richter). An experience made possible by the Overseas Scholarship of the University of Bologna.

2009-2010 — A second period in the United States, after the master's degree, under a second Overseas Scholarship of the University of Bologna, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Legal traineeship at the office of Attorney Alex Landon (San Diego): collaboration on criminal law cases — with particular regard to international drug trafficking (San Diego is a few kilometres from Tijuana, on one of the main routes into the United States), often defending couriers, marginal figures within the organisations — as well as immigration law and employment law matters. Direct experience in prisons and courts, both federal and state, in the field of defensive investigations.

Documents — international training

• University of Oklahoma — Coursework Spring 2009
• Letter from Prof. Meg Penrose (2009)
• Article — California period (2009)

PhD and academic research

PhD in Institutions and Markets, Rights and Protections — Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna; 26th cycle; scientific field IUS/16 (criminal procedure). Three-year programme 2011-2014, final examination 14 September 2015.

Thesis: "La prova penale nelle indagini difensive. Analisi comparata degli strumenti processuali concessi alla difesa nei sistemi italiano e statunitense" (Criminal evidence in defensive investigations. A comparative analysis of the procedural tools granted to the defence in the Italian and United States systems).

Supervisor: Prof. Giulio Illuminati.
Tutor: Prof. Michele Caianiello.

Examining board (Rectoral Decree no. 573/2015): Prof. Lea Querzola (Bologna), Prof. Franco Pellizzer (Ferrara), Prof. Pasqualino Albi (Pisa), Prof. Mario Notari (Bocconi), Prof. Fabio Grifantini (Camerino).

The research reconstructs the legal statute of defensive investigations under Articles 391-bis et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure (introduced by Law no. 397 of 7 December 2000) through the analysis of their historical genesis, the evolution of the case law, the deontological aspects and the applicative pathologies of the Italian system, setting it in a comparative key against the United States criminal-procedure system — with particular attention to the ABA Criminal Justice Standards — Defense Function and to the Supreme Court case law on the right to counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright, Strickland v. Washington, United States v. Cronic).

The work proposes, in a de iure condendo perspective, a rethinking of the relationship between the investigative stage and the trial, articulated in six specific reform measures: from counsel's power to summon to the video recording of the documented interview, from the extension of the duty to produce documents to private parties to the possibility of challenging the prosecutor's secrecy order under Article 391-quinquies, through to the equalisation of the powers of access to places.

Documents — PhD

• Research project (2013)
• First-year report (2011)
• Second-year report (2012)
• Final thesis — Criminal evidence in defensive investigations (2015)
• PhD diploma

Civil and commercial mediation

Diploma as Civil and Commercial Mediator obtained on 22 April 2011 (certificate no. 000910, training body Risorsa Cittadino, accredited with the Ministry of Justice under the directorial decree of 31.01.2007).

Enrolment in the Register of Mediators of the Conciliation Body of the Forlì-Cesena Bar Council (Ministry of Justice register no. 170 of 14.03.2011) from 16 December 2011 to 16 December 2021.

Documents — mediation

• Diploma as Civil and Commercial Mediator (2011)

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