Ioannis Giannidis

Practice Areas

Ioannis is the Founder and Managing Partner of “GIANNIDISKOURELEAS Law Firm”. He is Professor Emeritus of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure and an expert in white-collar crime, combining consulting and criminal law litigation. The areas of expertise include Corporate criminal liability i.e. BoD Members/Managers’ personal exposure, Tax criminal law, Fraud, Embezzlement, Breach of trust/misappropriation, Corruption, Money laundering on the basis of financial crimes (including Freezing and seizure of bank accounts), European and International Arrest warrant, Extradition requests related to financial crime, Negligence (Construction, Medical, Aviation).

Career

In 1986, Ioannis founded the Law Firm and is practicing criminal law since then. In the last three decades, Ioannis has represented clients in almost all major financial criminal cases in Greece. The Firm efficiently undertakes the overall handling of corporate criminal cases, representing CEOs, BoD members, Directors etc.

Within the last two years, Ioannis is a counselor to all key legal entities established by the Greek state for the management of public assets.

He has an unparalleled experience in handling delicate criminal matters for Banks and financial institutions for over 30 years; he has a long year experience in handling criminal cases with political aspects and has represented major politicians (including former Prime Ministers).

In parallel with his multilingual skills, Ioannis has an extended knowledge of Criminal Law and practice in foreign countries (Germany, France et al.)

Moreover, he has a distinguished academic career. In the years 1983-1984 he was a lecturer (Akademischer Rat) in Criminal Law and Legal Philosophy at the Faculty of Law, University of Munich. Since 1985 he was teaching criminal law and criminal procedure at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Law School). He is now Professor Emeritus.

Ioannis serves as legal counselor to the National Bank of Greece (NBG) since 1993. Since 2014, he is Head legal counselor to the executive members of NBG and member of the Legal Council of the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA). For 10 years (2004-2014) he was member of the Board of NBG.

From 2015 to 2019, Ioannis was a member of the Committee assigned by the Ministry of Justice with the amendment of the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure. The work of the Committee introduced a radical reform of the Greek Criminal Procedure.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Athens Bar Association; since 2015 Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic Association of Penal Law (Greek section of the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal); Member of the Hellenic Criminal Bar Association.

Publications

Most important publications in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, European Criminal Law issues:

Justice as institution and organization, Athens 2016; The structure of the European Court of Human Rights case law, Poin.Chron.2016, p. 647-651; The distinction between factual and legal issue. The practical meaning of an “old-fashioned” theoretical distinction, 2016, p.1778-1785; Code of Penal Procedure (Case law per article), Athens 2015; Penal procedure as the main guarantor of personal rights in the new (European) environment of the criminal judiciary system, Conference “Latest development on the European Financial Criminal Law”, Piraeus, November 27-28, 2009; Penal Code and Case Law, (Case Law per article), Athens 2009, (together with Α. Charalabakis); The question of the legitimacy of the criminal law today and the end of the classical conception of dogma in substantial criminal law, Poin.Chron.2007, p. 769-775; The Justification of the decision of the criminal courts, 2nd Volume, Athens 2003; The Justification of the decision of the criminal courts, 1st Volume, Athens 1989.

Contributions:

Lexology - Getting the Deal Through (GTDT)– Government Investigations in Greece, 2019, 2020, 2021,2022.

Personal

Ioannis was born in Piraeus in 1950. He studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and at the University of Munich, Germany (Dr.Juris). He is married to Antonia – Ioli Tzannetakis and they have a 29 years old daughter, Alexandra.