Marco Giacomello.Mens et opusITWork with me
About

Marco Giacomello

Born in Vicenza, law degree in Trento, PhD in Law & New Technologies at CIRSFID, Bologna. Today I live and work in Milan. A tinkerer since birth, orderly in my own chaos.

I have been a partner in Italian law firms, I am of counsel to international firms and I founded three consultancies at the crossroads of creativity, technology and law. I worked on legal design and named legal experience: there is UX, there is UI, why not LX?

The question that has always driven me: why is law, which concerns everyone, understood by so few?

I started with copyright and digital publishing, then 3D printing and bioprinting, then legal design, when in Italy it still looked like a graphic whim. Today that question is a work programme. Habeas Mentem is the theory. Neuro Legal Cortex is the lab measuring how the brain reads law. È CHIARO? is the tool, for readers and drafters. Il mondo delle domande brings it all to children.

Today I teach at Bologna Business School, I am of counsel to RP Legal & Tax, and with Maria Livia Rizzo I lead DeepTechLaw · GiacomelloRizzo.

Recognition
Forbes Italia · 2021Top 100 Italian LawyersAmong the hundred Italian lawyers selected by Forbes Italia.See the article →TEDxLivorno · 2019Ethics and roboticsMy TEDx talk: an ethical supply chain resolves the conflict between law and technology.Watch the talk →Legalcommunity Awards · 2021Professional of the Year, Legal DesignThe award for my legal design work.See the article →
How I work

Not rebuilding the legal world. Building the one for the next fifty years.

  1. I

    Clarity, not simplicity

    Some things are and will always be complex. They should not be dumbed down: they should be made understandable.

  2. II

    Organise, then write

    The key is organising information around the reader’s mental models. Towards mass personalisation.

  3. III

    Fewer choices, more freedom

    Faced with endless choices we freeze, and rules get ignored. Removing pointless options is respect for people’s time.

  4. IV

    Humanocracy, not bureaucracy

    One question always in mind: what kind of organisation lets people give their best?

  5. V

    The gentle nudge

    Rules communicated in a human, even friendly way, reaching both head and heart. Only then are they taken in.

  6. VI

    Out of the maze

    I am not looking for shortcuts in the maze. I am looking for an alternative to the maze.

Law, as it presents itself todayThe law I build
Impassive sphinxes, grim and austereA human tone that gets heard
White, grey and blackDesign, colour, structure
Endless and formally perfectClear, and measured on the reader
Latinisms for the fewWords for everyone
Anxiety-inducing rules that get ignoredRules that are understood, so they are followed
PachydermsGazelles
“Think with your own head and learn to say no; be rebels for a just cause.”
Mario Rigoni Stern, the words I try to pass on to the future
TEDxLivorno · 2019

Ethics and robotics

My TEDx talk: an ethical supply chain resolves the conflict between law and technology.

Write to me

For collaborations, talks, challenges or critiques: marco@giacomello.digital · LinkedIn ↗

Books, articles and talks →