Avv. Luca Santa Maria
Born in 1962, he graduated cum laude in 1986 from the University of Milan with a thesis entitled “Crimes Negligent Facilitation”, with Prof. Giorgio Marinucci. He was admitted to the Bar in 1991, and since 2004 he has been admitted to practice before the Italian Supreme Court.
From 1986 to 1991 he was Assistant to the Chair of Criminal Law (Prof. Giorgio Marinucci) at the School of Criminal Law and Procedure of the University of Milan, lecturing, examining, and acting as a supervisor for students preparing their dissertations.
From January 1987 to 2001 he worked in the law firm of Prof. Avv. Federico Stella, Full Professor of Criminal Law at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan; in this context, he had the opportunity to develop specific competences in the field of Environmental and Workplace Safety Criminal Law, and Business Criminal Law in general. In Prof. Stella’s law firm he was involved in a number of internationally relevant criminal proceedings: in particular, he defended a civil party during the trial on the disaster in Val di Stava; he defended the former directors during the bankruptcy trial of the now defunct Banco Ambrosiano; he also defended the managers of various important chemical companies indicted in the famous Porto Marghera “petrochemical” trial.
He gained considerable experience assisting an important oil company; in particular, in defining guidelines in case of acquisition of international orders, prior to the introduction of the crime of international corruption in the Italian Criminal Law system. He also advised various multinational companies on market and social communication transparency, and the implementation of delegation systems in the Environmental and Workplace Safety sectors.
In April 2001 he established a new law firm offering judicial and extrajudicial assistance to multinational companies operating mainly in the chemical and telecommunications sectors; its business areas focus on Environmental and Workplace Safety Criminal Law, Corporate Criminal Law, and administrative liability of companies.
For about twenty years he has been assisting and defending a foreign chemical-pharmaceutical multinational company with several factories in Italy in trials for environmental crimes of national significance, including those of poisoning and environmental disaster in Bussi sul Tirino, and Spinetta Marengo.
Since 2008 he has also assisted the leading Italian telecommunications company in all its most significant judicial proceedings. He assisted the company in three different trials concerning administrative liability.
Since 2012, TopLegal review has ranked him market leader in the field of Environmental, Health and Industrial Criminal Law.
In 2015 he was appointed Lawyer of the Year by Le Fonti review.
His lifelong interest in philosophy of law and criminal science led him, in 2010, to devise and then to create Diritto Penale Contemporaneo (the most important online law review in Italy, with more than 100,000 users per month, edited by Association Diritto Penale Contemporaneo, of which he is currently the President), with the aim of promoting a virtual arena of dialogue and debate, open to all criminal law operators.
As part of his continuous research, he is now focusing his attention on the field of neuroscience, questioning the impact of the scientific developments of the last twenty years on the criminal law system. He is currently working on a new publishing project, together with other members of the law firm.
He is the father of Federico, Leonardo and Lucrezia.