This year, the annual AIJA M&A winter seminar took place in Madonna di Campiglio, from 15 to 18 January. Marco Gardino (R&P Legal - Italy) summed up the event by sharing some of the main highlights with us.
The organising committee, Marie Brasseur (ALTIUS - Belgium), Marco Gardino (R&P Legal - Italy), Clara Gordon (WOLF THEISS Rechtsanwälte GmbH & Co KG - Austria) and Matteo Vernizzi (Studio Legale Spinazzi Azzarita Troi Genito - Italy), planned out three days of workshops which explored teamwork in M&A transactions as well as which M&A transaction ‘pitfalls’ arise from other legal fields.
The seminar was opened by AIJA President Paola Fudakowska, with an attendance of more than 100 lawyers from more than 20 jurisdictions. The welcome address was followed by a panel on how the limits set by antitrust law can be integrated in M&A processes in a practicable way. Moderators Clara Gordon (Wolf Theiss - Austria) and Vittoria Deregibus (Pedersoli - Italy) discussed the topic with the two antitrust law experts Gustaf Duhs (Stevens & Bolton - United Kingdom) and Isabel Oest (Commeo LLP - Germany).
Antti Sailakivi (HPP attorneys - Finland) and Alex Montoya (Casahierro Abogados - Peru) then guided the tax panel on how to structure the deal from a tax perspective and what specific tax clauses should be envisaged in the transactional documents with the two tax law experts Alessandro Foti (De Berti Jacchia Franchini Forlani - Italy) and Alberto Brazzalotto (Maisto e Associati - Italy).
HR issues in M&A transactions are always crucial for M&A transactions. Using a very interactive approach, with an interesting live survey system, Dino Serafini (Ughi e Nunziante - Italy) and Jakob Nortoft (Glimstedt - Sweden) moderated a very effective panel with Nicky De Groot (Penrose Law - Netherlands), Stefan Muller (Wenger & Vieli - Switzerland) and Zuzana Chudackova (BNT attorneys - Slovakia).
On the second day, the first panel was dedicated to data protection issues, with an interesting analysis by Siri Martensson (Morris Law - Sweden) and Karolina Miksa (WKB - Poland) on the impact of GDPR in the management of M&A transactions, moderated by Giorgio Ferrero (Portolano Cavallo - Italy) and Dr. Daniel Mösinger (K&L Gates - Germany). The second panel focused on dispute resolution: Lars Raedschelders (Sherpa Law - Belgium) and Thomas Seeber (Kunz Wallentin - Austria) discussed the importance of efficient dispute resolution of M&A disputes with expert litigators, Liv Bahner (Bratschi - Switzerland) and Marie Davy (Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP - France).
Marie Brasseur then moderated a well-attended panel dedicated to exchanging views with in-house counsel. Gloria Bertini (Head of Contracting, Snam SpA - Italy), Nemio Passalacqua (General Counsel Europe, Petronas Lubricants - Italy) and Davide Davico (General Counsel, Ersel Investimenti - Italy) debated how interaction between in-house lawyers and external counsel can be improved.
The need to interact in M&A transactions with lawyers from very diverse backgrounds requires great project management capabilities. For this reason, the programme closed with a project management training session led by DLM Partners. The participants worked on a practical exercise, which was also a great support activity for CBM Italia Onlus.
Besides the academic content, the seminar featured a fantastic social programme, with skiing as well as the first AIJA ski mountaineering excursion. Participants enjoyed a dinner at the well-known Chalet Fiat, surrounded by the unique landscapes of Dolomiti di Brenta.