He has been ranked since several years in the 1st Tier in competition law for Italy by Chambers Europe. He was awarded the prize for best competition lawyer from the two foremost Italian specialized publications (Top Legal, 2011; Legal Community, 2017, 2021).
Cristoforo focuses on EU and Italian Competition (Antitrust) Law. He advises many leading Italian and multinational corporations in high-profile matters before the Italian Competition Authority and the European Commission. He conducts a significant amount of disputes before civil and administrative courts and before the Court of Justice of the European Union on issues related to competition law, unfair business practices and abuse of economic dependence. He has experience in the field of state aid and is regularly involved in the development and management of antitrust compliance and auditing programs.
He is a professor of Business Law at the Law School of the University of Salento in Lecce; he was Unicredit Visiting Professor for European Legal Studies at Columbia School of Law in New York in 2015, where he taught a course on Global Competition Law and a seminar on the theories of competition law.
He is author of a textbook (“Diritto della Concorrenza”, Il Mulino),various monographs, among others “Nuovi Obblighi a Contrarre” (Il Mulino), of the chapter “Contratto e Concorrenza” in “Trattato del Contratto” edited by Enzo Roppo (II ed., Giuffrè, 2022), and of several articles, lastly of “Adversus dogmaticos: la post-pandettistica alla prova del diritto della concorrenza, Mercato Concorrenza e Regole”, 2022; “Il Digital Markets Acts tra Regolazione e Concorrenza”, in AA.VV., “Verso una legislazione europea su mercati e servizi digitali”.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Cristoforo joined the firm as partner in 2012. From 1999 to 2012 he was a partner at Clifford Chance LLP, where he was the head of the Competition Law and Regulatory Department for Italian offices. Since 1995 he held the same position with a leading Italian law firm. Since 2024 Co-Head of the "European Law & Antitrust" Practice Area.ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Tenured Professor of Private Comparative Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Salento, Lecce; Adjunct Professor of Competition Law at the Faculty of Economics of LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome.QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
1986
Member of the Rome Bar (Italy)
1987
Admitted to New York State Bar
2005
Admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, Italy
EDUCATION
Graduated in Law, cum laude
University of Rome “La Sapienza”,
1981
LL.M., Fulbright Scholar, Stone Scholar
University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbour (USA),
1985
LANGUAGES
Italian, English, French, German