Carmelo Barreca

Carmelo Barreca

Of Counsel

Barrister Carmelo Barreca graduated in Law from the University of Catania in 1986.

He began working with two well-known Catania professionals, Professor Lawyer Eduardo Grasso, professor of civil procedural law at the Faculty of Law of Catania, and Lawyer Andrea Scuderi, a well-known expert in administrative law. In his early years, he won the prize awarded by the Catania Bar Association in memory of 'Giovanni Bonfiglio' (1992), and the prize awarded in memory of 'Avv. Carlo Paola' (1994).

During the same period, he obtained the university title of 'Doctor of Research in Civil Procedural Law'. Carmelo Barreca was a member of the board of teachers of the Professional Course for Preparing for the Examinations for Attorney at Law, of the Study Commission on the Problems of the Civil Process created by the Council of the Bar Association of Catania, as well as lecturer at the "Antonino Galati" School of Forensic Specialisation run by the University of Catania (a position still held to this day), the refresher course for Judicial Officers held in Catania and by the DBI in Palermo, the national retraining course for C1 judicial officers.

Accredited by the Ministry of Justice as an experimenter of the telematic civil process at the Catania Court of Appeal, in 2001 he was the only Italian partner in the study and research project financed by the European Community called "E-arbitration T", for the study and dissemination of electronic arbitration via the Internet.

His disciplinary, academic and professional training allows him to embrace all areas of civil law and especially administrative law. Attentive to the issues of anti-racketeering, extortion and usury, he has become the lawyer for various injured parties and initiated the first judgments before the administrative courts to obtain regional and state contributions. In 1999, he won the trust of ASIA, the Sicilian anti-racketeering association, and became its lawyer, acting as civil plaintiff in the criminal trials initiated against extortionists and usurers.

An expert in national and international arbitration, in 1990 he joined the Italian Arbitration Association and in 1995 he became secretary of the 'Arbitration and Conciliation Chamber of Catania', and in 2006 he joined the roll of arbitrators of the 'Arbitration Chamber at the Supervisory Authority for Public Works'. He is also an expert in the field of public tenders and in 2004 was, among others, a member of the Technical Commission for the examination of project financing proposals for the construction of a car park in Caltagirone, and a member of the Tender Commission for the assignment of the reconversion, completion and transformation of Comiso Airport.

He is further particularly involved in environmental law, assisting various companies in disputes concerning the construction of landfills and waste treatment plants. An expert in gaming and betting, in 2007 he became the trusted lawyer of the largest Italian concessionaire of legal gaming with cash winnings and was called as a speaker at study meetings on the subject. He therefore deals with the most relevant cases in Italy in the field of public gaming, managing for various gaming concessionaires operating in Italy numerous litigations before the various courts, including the accounting court.

He is the author of numerous scientific contributions as a member of the Editorial Committee of the legal journal "SENTENZE" and a member of the Scientific Committee of the legal-informatics journal "DIRITTO & DIRITTI" published online on (www.diritto.it), and of publications.

For the past three years he has been running a column in the daily newspaper 'la Sicilia' (national edition) together with his colleague Silvio Motta entitled 'l'Osservatorio giuridico' where he publishes an article every Sunday on the latest case law developments in the field of tenders and civil law in general.