Lener & Partners Studio Legale

Firm Overview:

Lener&Partners is a boutique corporate and financial services firm specialising in the provision of legal advice on corporate matters and on the whole range of financial services regulation, including contentious and restructuring matters. Despite being a newly formed law firm, the firm capitalises on the experience and client base developed in the course of a twenty-years relationship with a magic circle firm. The team of market-leading regulatory professionals have experience in setting up banks, asset management companies, investment firms, insurance companies as well as financial intermediaries providing regulated services. The department is renowned in Italy for highly specialised regulatory advice. This includes the appointment by ECB of Professor Lener as commissioner in the context of banking restructuring transactions and the involvement of the firm in matters requiring an in depth knowledge of market structures (stock exchanges, CCPs, clearing houses, central depositaries, wholesale markets for government securities, benchmark providers), collective asset management business and depositaries, global custodians and all M&A activity involving any such entities.

Main Areas of Practice:

REGULATION OF BANKING, INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL MARKETS
Lener&Partners has extensive experience in advising on the whole range of the regulation of the banking, insurance and financial markets sectors.

The firm’s activities span from advising banks and other financial entities in non-contentious to contentious matters (including arbitration). In many cases the firm’s advice focuses on the offering of multi-jurisdictional banking, insurance and financial products in more than one EU and third country at the same time. Furthermore, the firm regularly advises asset managers and asset managers' associations in all aspects related to the implementation of the UCITS and AIFM Directives, including in connection with the provision of depositary and local paying agent services. Notable is the experience in the provision of advice to Italian and foreign regulated markets and to central securities depositories and central counterparties.

Lener&Partners’ activities in these areas include: request for authorisation for the provision of banking, investment services and insurance activities; request for authorisation for the acquisition of qualifying holdings in banks, investment firms and insurance companies; regulatory compliance; outsourcing; off-premises offers of banking, payment and financial products; product manufacture of banking, financial and insurance products; customer documentation and terms of business; drafting of pledges, financial guarantees and financial collateral agreements; investment banking; capital adequacy; custody and depositary banks; transparency rules applicable to banks, PSPs and IMELs; the provision payment and electronic money services; consumer credit; insurance and reinsurance; regulatory requirements regarding insurance companies’ investment policies; the provision of investment services; the activities of broker dealers, including the setting up of networks; conduct of business rules ( e.g. , inducements, disclosures to investors, etc.); derivatives; compliance procedures (including support to internal compliance function); the provision of collective management services; exchanges and clearing systems; fund management; investment funds; inward and outward passporting of banking, investment and insurance services; marketing rules; handling of fines before the competent regulatory authorities.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION
With regard to dispute resolution, Lener&Partners’services are focused mainly on managing disputes in the sectors of the firm’s expertise. The partners are often appointed as Arbitrators in international and domestic disputes managed by the Milan Chamber or other international Chambers. The firm’s services are offered to Italian and foreign banks, banking foundations, insurance companies, asset management companies, investment companies, insurance intermediaries, pension funds and, generally, private and public companies, with special reference to the following matters: assistance to supervised entities and their corporate officers in sanctioning proceedings by the Supervisory Authorities; liability actions against corporate officers of supervised entities; litigation regarding tenders; litigation regarding most commercial contracts; corporate litigation; contracts for the purchase and sale of real estate and the transfer of real rights; derivatives with local authorities and private counterparties; securitisation transactions; bankruptcy procedures; industrial and intellectual property and unfair competition; provision of banking and investment services; pre-contractual and contractual liability in connection with merger and acquisition procedures; professional liability.

FINTECH
In the FinTech sector, Lener&Partners regularly advises companies and organizations on issues regarding: the setting up of blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) entities both in Italy or abroad; issuance of crypto-assets (utility and security tokens) and cryptocurrencies; KYC rules; creation of Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO); regulatory requirements for Centralized and Decentralized exchanges; launching of Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Dex Offering (IDO) and Initial Exchange Offering (IEO); legal due diligence and compliance of services offered through Smart Contracts.

The firm also offers assistance on the following matters: Robo-advisor; Cybersecurity; Equity Crowdfunding and Lending; Artificial Intelligence; Start-up and "PMI innovative" ( Innovative SME ).

CORPORATE/M&A
Lener&Partners provides assistance to itsclients in the field of Corporate/M&A. The team of specialists has been involved in the most relevant aggregations of credit institutions, stock exchanges and providers of securities services that have taken place on the Italian and European markets in the past years dealing with the regulatory aspects of such transactions.

The firm’s activities include: merger by acquisition and incorporation; acquisition of shareholdings, including the regulatory aspects affecting banks and other regulated entities; sale and purchase of shares, spin-off and carve-out operations; leveraged buyout; legal due diligence; structuring and drafting of shareholder agreements in commercial and supervised companies, both public or private; transition of regulated entities to a different corporate governance; revision of the Company’s organisational structure; relations with the authorities; regulatory compliance; remuneration policies of supervised entities (e.g. banks, asset managers, etc.).

INSOLVENCY PROCEDURES & DBT RESTRUCTURING
Lener&Partners assists and advises credit institutions, financial entities and investment funds throughout all phases of insolvency proceedings and debt restructuring processes.

The firm’s activities include: management of default situations; restructuring of financial indebtedness; standstill agreements; corporate reorganisation; granting of loans in crisis situations, e.g. bridge loans; distressed debt transactions; sale and purchase of non-performing loans in connection with securitisation transactions; assessment of insolvency risks in relation securitisations transactions.

Chairman & Managing Partner: Prof. Avv. Raffaele Lener
Number of partners: 4
Number of lawyers: 9
Tel: +390695282400
Email: [email protected]