Jean-Paule Castagno

Partner

Milan

Jean-Paule Castagno is partner in Orrick's Milan office and Head of the Italian White-Collar, Internal Investigations & Compliance.

Jean-Paule has more than 20 years of proven experience in white collar and corporate investigation, managing all phases of crisis management, such as internal investigations – including those of a cross-border nature –, the court defence in the context of criminal proceedings and the sanction proceedings before the Supervisory Authorities, in the interests of both individuals and legal entities (according to the D. Legislative Decree no. 231/2001). Jean-Paule advises clients in high-profile and complex cases with specific reference to anti-money laundering, financial crimes, false accounting, bankruptcy offenses, tax crimes, corruption and bribery in both the public and private sector, environmental crimes, occupational health and safety offenses, intellectual property crimes, data protection and privacy crimes/cybercrime, and import/export sanctions.

Thanks to her broad experience in conducting internal investigation and assisting individuals and legal entities in criminal and sanctions proceedings, she has been involved in advising Italian and foreign companies to address potential compliance risks, in performing due diligence focused on risk management and compliance risk in the context of extraordinary transactions and IPOs as well as in preparing and updating compliance programs (adopted under Law No. 231/2001) and in leading relative training to the board and to the employees.

She has also been appointed as member and chairwoman of the surveillance committees (Organismo di Vigilanza) of many Italian and foreign companies.

  • Clients say about her: “Jean-Paule is extremely strategic. Her way to approach every case reminds me of a chess player: when she makes a move, she has already identified the possible countermoves and acted accordingly." (Chambers Europe 2021). And also “Jean-Paule Castagno is a brilliant litigator with a very sharp legal mind. She is able to communicate challenging issues to us in a clear manner, is very strategic in her approach to litigation, and does not get drawn into the politics”. (Legal500 2022). She is recognized by international directories among the leading lawyers in Italy in Compliance (Band 2 in Chambers Europe 2022 and Tier 1 in Legal500 2022), White Collar Crime (Band 3 in Chambers Europe 2022) and Dispute Resolution (Tier 4 in Legal500 2022).

    She completed the Broadening Business Perspectives Program at Insead in 2018 and received her PhD in Criminal Procedural Law from Università degli Studi Milano Bicocca in 2010. She began her career in Italian Criminal Law boutiques, with Avv. Alleva in 2002 and Avv. Ripamonti in 2007. From 2012 she works in the context of international law firms.