22 www.lawyer-monthly.com Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2024 prominent financial institutions and independent authorities. Recently, I have noticed the increasing use of preventive measures, whose application nowadays transcends their original criminological rationale, as it was conceived in the 90s, on top of the expansion of the borders and application of body corporate “criminal” liability. By and large, these are evolutive trends that reflect widespread social concerns and, at the same time, constitute tentative answers to the same social anxiety, given, at first, by the regulator, and then by Prosecution offices. After all, as I said earlier, the law is a historical and social phenomenon, and one cannot understand it outside of the relevant societal context that the law itself is supposed to regulate. Eventually, one should not overlook the impulse that the full enforcement of the EPPO system will most likely provide in those areas that fall under EU competence. How do you stay updated with the constantly evolving landscape of white-collar crime law and ensure your team is equipped with the latest knowledge and tools? Access to data is paramount. Our associates can tap into the most up-to-date databanks so that they can be consistently provided with a complete picture of all the relevant legislative, judicial, and scientific developments. More generally, organizing and attending conferences also constitutes a necessary and profitable opportunity for exchange with colleagues, prosecutors, judges and other professional figures in the field of law and economics. One must not be oblivious to the importance of network-building in our profession; equally, we should never underestimate access to news: we must be aware of the world wherein we carry out our activity. Can you discuss the role of technology and forensic accounting in building a strong case for white-collar crime? How has AI impacted your work in recent years? The role of such technologies, nowadays, has become crucial. Throughout their investigations, prosecutors gather an amount of data and information that was hardly conceivable only few years ago. After all, digitalization and dematerialization of companies’ business records has significantly increased what is being stored; accordingly, there is hardly one business activity in a company which cannot be traced back, often to several years, by aid of a precise and substantial record of emails or by sieving documents stored on dedicated servers, often held abroad. Clearly, analyzing such a huge amount of data would not be feasible without aid coming from new technologies. AI will become more and more significant in selecting useful information. These are the most apparent developments, but there are many more whose actual impact can hardly be determined at the moment. One could think, for instance, of scientific trials conducted in the field of “predictive justice”, which may prove very troublesome in the context of the criminal law. Quite intelligently, it has been argued that this cutting-edge employment of AI technology in the criminal trial may come with a risk of drifting away from a fact-based approach to a personality-based one, the latter approach being often referred to by Italian scholars as predicated upon a “colpa d’autore”, i.e.: author’s fault. In this respect, we should be mindful to the experiences of other jurisdictions. I am talking about cases like “Loomis”, decided by the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin. The trial’s court had determined the risk of recidivism, relevant for sentencing, based on an AI system which had highlighted as biases some racial discriminations. The Supreme Court asserted that “the Q Q The role of such technologies, nowadays, has become crucial. Throughout their investigations, prosecutors gather an amount of data and information that was hardly conceivable only few years ago. “
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