Christian is an internationally recognized New York-based corporate and M&A attorney and vice chair of Cozen O’Connor’s International Practice. For more than 20 years, Christian has advised domestic and foreign companies and private equity firms on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and sophisticated cross-border transactions.
His primary focus is supporting inbound M&A deals and complex corporate transactions on behalf of global companies and private equity funds. Christian routinely structures, negotiates, and closes deals ranging in value from several million to several billion dollars. He was lead counsel on one of the largest retail M&A transactions consummated in the United States in 2022, and he has been repeatedly recognized by The Legal 500 as a key lawyer in the New York middle market M&A category.
Christian’s educational background, legal training, and professional experience are key differentiators in the legal marketplace. He grew up in Italy, fluent in English and Italian, and graduated from law school in Padua, Italy, before matriculating at Columbia Law School. Christian has practiced exclusively at Am Law 100 firms for more than two decades, serving major clients in diverse sectors, including manufacturing, life sciences, technology, food and beverage, fashion, and retail.
Clients benefit from Christian’s deep knowledge of U.S. and foreign legal regimes and from his understanding of cross-jurisdictional differences in legal philosophy, corporate culture, and social norms. He provides both technical legal guidance and fosters the cross-border relationships that are key to closing transactions and creating lasting partnerships.
As a compliment to his sophisticated M&A practice, Christian serves as outside U.S. legal counsel global businesses and private equity funds, from publicly-traded conglomerates to middle-market players. He handles day-to-day commercial contracting and licensing, corporate governance, and strategic business advising — and assembles and oversees multidisciplinary teams of colleagues who focus on complex commercial litigation, international arbitration, employment law, class action defense, IP issues, and OFAC and privacy law compliance.
Christian is well-known in the international legal community and often invited to speak at legal industry conferences and seminars. He is a longtime senior officer of the International Bar Association (IBA), current chair of the IBA’s Financial and Tax Aspects of International Sales Subcommittee of the International Commerce and Distribution Committee, and former chair of the IBA’s Government Procurement Subcommittee.
Christian is also a permanent member of the Board of Advisors to the Columbia Law School Association (CLSA), having served as its president, first-vice president, and director for several years, and was, notably, the first L.L.M.-alumnus ever elected president of the CLSA.