Francesco Dagnino

Practice Areas

A founder and managing partner of LEXIA Avvocati, Francesco Dagnino specialises in Capital Markets, Corporate and M&A, Financial Services, FinTech & Crypto-Assets. Francesco’s leadership is recognized in the Italian legal services market with particular focus on Tech, FinTech, Crypto, and Blockchain sectors, having devised creative and innovative solutions that have left their mark. Francesco was awarded the prize as Best Lawyer in Italy for the category “FinTech” at the 2019 Italian Top Legal Industry Awards. Moreover, he is founder and vice-president of AIEDA, the Italian Shareholders’ Rights Association (Associazione Italiana per l’Esercizio dei Diritti degli Azionisti).

His expertise includes:

- assisting Italian listed companies and their shareholders (including activist shareholders) on corporate governance matters, proxy-fights, compensation, related-party transactions, market abuse, internal dealing, shareholders’ agreements, shareholder’s meetings etc.;

- counselling both listed and non-listed companies, financial institutions and asset managers on capital markets transactions including IPOs, rights’ issue, shares’ buybacks and public tender offers;

- handling domestic and cross-border public and private M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions in which regularly advises both Italian and international clients, including private equity funds, sovereign funds, multinationals, innovative start-ups and high net worth individuals;

- advising tech companies on financial regulation matters concerning innovative FinTech and Crypto-Assets platforms and services.

Career

Francesco Dagnino was admitted to the Italian Bar in 2006. He obtained a Ph.D. in Corporate and Financial Markets Law from the University of Bologna, and an L.L.M in Corporate Law from the New York University School of Law as a Fulbright Scholar and an Arthur T. Vanderbilt Scholar. He was a visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York. He graduated in Law summa cum laude from the University of Palermo. He is the author of many academic publications in the fields of corporate law, capital markets and financial regulation, and a regular speaker at conferences. Before founding LEXIA Avvocati, he worked at Top Tier international law firm.

Professional Memberships

He serves as a vice-chairman of the Italian Shareholders’ Rights Association (Associazione Italiana per l’Esercizio dei Diritti degli Azionisti – AIEDA).

Francesco has been appointed “Financial Innovation Ambassador” by AIFIn - The Financial Innovation Think Tank, which annually identifies the managers and opinion leaders who have contributed most to promoting the culture of financial innovation.

Publications

He is the author of many academic publications in the fields of corporate law, capital markets and financial regulation, and a regular speaker at conferences.

He regularly publishes articles and contributions on Italian and international newspapers specialized in financial services and Fintech matters, such as the Huffington Post, Cryptonomist, Il Sole 24 Ore and Italia Oggi.

Clients

- Issuers listed in Italy and their related bodies (Boards of Directors, internal committees, boards of auditors) on issues of corporate governance, market abuse and internal dealing, as well as in relation to extraordinary operations on the capital market (IPOs, capital increases, purchases of treasury shares, public purchase offers etc.).

- Funds and other activist investors in relation to the acquisition of shares in listed issuers, solicitations of voting proxies, public takeover offers, participation in shareholders’ meetings, etc..

- Operators in the FinTech and crypto-assets sectors, on issues related to banking, financial, investment and payment services regulation;

Italian and international clients, private equity funds and individuals in relation to M&A, private equity and venture capital operations.