Avv.
Francesco Maria Di Majo

Rome
Via Giovanni Paisiello, 49
+39 06 86 29 78 41

Milan
Via Clerici, 5

Mobile +39 338 4929901
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Practice Areas
energy and infrastructure / Maritime and port law/Environmental Law and Circular Economy/Arbitration and ADR/ Public and Administrative Law

Professional Experience
Francesco Maria di Majo began his professional career in 1990 as a lawyer between Rome and Paris and has been a member of the Rome Bar Association since 1993. Over the last 15 years he has specialised in legal advice in the field of renewable energy, environmental law (in particular waste management and remediation), ports & shipping, public procurement and in foreign direct investment.
From 2012 to 2016, Francesco di Majo was "Counsel" at the law firm Watson, Farley & Williams.
Previously, between 2007 and 2011, Francesco di Majo worked as a lawyer between Rome and Vienna and as legal expert in several EU, EBRD and UNDP projects, providing technical assistance to South-East European countries in the field of environmental and renewable energy law, public procurement law, company law and competition law. Between 2010 and 2016, he drafted several reports for the Italian government (DIPE) on the Italian port system. During the same period, he coordinated projects and conferences regarding the security of investments in North Africa (in particular in Libya) and the bilateral investment agreements (BIT) and application of Dispute Settlement Mechanisms. Between 2013-2015, Francesco di Majo was appointed Austrian market representative at the German-Italian Chamber of Commerce.

For 11 years, from 1996 to 2007, Francesco di Majo served as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked for the first two years at the Legal Service during which he was, among other things, also a member of the Italian Government's defence panel in an international arbitration between Italy and Costa Rica (award favourable to Italy) administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. As a diplomat, he has carried out commercial, consular, legal and multilateral roles at Italian embassies and consulates in Vienna, Luxembourg (at the European Court of Justice), Prague (as a pre-accession advisor), and in several Western Balkan countries (as a project manager in the framework of a European institutional cooperation project aimed at assisting Balkan countries in adapting their legislation to Community law, in particular on public procurement, environmental protection and competition). In Vienna, he contributed to the conclusion of the negotiations for the 2004 agreement between Italy and Austria for the construction of the Brenner basis tunnel.
From 24 November 2016 until the end of December 2020, Francesco Maria di Majo was President of the Italian Port System Authority of the Central North Tyrrhenian Sea (the so-called "Port Authority of Rome", which includes the ports of Civitavecchia, Fiumicino and Gaeta). In this role, he carried out and/or completed several infrastructure works, also managing to obtain important loans from the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility. In November 2018, as president of the aforementioned Port Authority, he signed with the EIB the highest loan ever granted to an Italian port (EUR 195 million). In September 2019, he received the Smart Port of the Year & Green Technology award for his special contribution to environmental issues in the port and maritime sector. He has been appointed Vice-President of Medports (of which several North African ports are members) and Chairman of the Lazio Region working group for the establishment of a Simplified Logistic Zone (SLZ) of the Lazio ports and for the drafting of the Strategic Development Plan of the Lazio SLZ.
Mr. di Majo has written several books, essays, articles on European and international law (including a Code of EU Treaties annotated with the case law of the Court of Justice), on environmental law and on the port and maritime sectors and is currently contract professor at the University of Rome Unitelma, within the Master of I level "European Union Law for Public Administrations" with particular reference to European Law related to port and maritime sector (concessions; competition and state aid) as well as in environmental sector (waste and landfill management, liability for environmental damage).
He has recently published two essays in "GeoTrade" (a magazine specialised in geopolitics and foreign trade) entitled: "The economic reconstruction of Libya and the restrictive measures adopted in the last decade (2021-2021)" and "Ports and the application of the golden power regime".

He was awarded in 2006 the honour of official knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere Ufficiale dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica italiana)

Education
J.D. with honors in Law from Rome University La Sapienza (1990), The Hague Academy of International Law, certificate of achievement (1995).

Lingue
Italian (mother tongue), English, German and French.