Lehman, Lee & Xu and Carone & Partners Give Lecture at Bocconi University in Milan

Milan, Italy - October 5, 2006 - Mr. Richard Wageman, senior partner at the Chinese law firm Lehman, Lee & Xu and Mr. Marco Carone, managing partner of the Italian law firm Carone & Partners and adjunct professor of business law and corporate governance at Bocconi University, delivered a lecture at Bocconi University in Milan.

More than sixty international students in General Management attended the lecture, which focused on minority shareholders’ protection in Chinese and Italian company law

Both Chinese and Italian company law have been recently reformed. In 2004, a new law was introduced in Italy, governing joint-stock and cooperative companies, while in 2005 the new Chinese company law came into effect. The two lawyers provided the students with an outlook of the two different legal systems and how both of them are evolving towards a system of stronger protection for minority shareholders.

Corporate scandals in the U.S. and Italy (such as the Enron and the Parmalat case) have produced a legislative reaction in both countries, resulting in new rules being adopted in an effort to reduce shareholders’ apathy, increase minority shareholders’ protection, govern the role and tasks of reputational intermediaries and start a new debate on “gatekeepers” liability. Additionally, topics such as the “one share-one vote” principle are now being examined in a new light by major scholars and institutions.

Still far from Western standards, Chinese company law seems however to have started developing in a similar direction, with new provisions governing derivative actions, as well as entitling minority shareholders to summon the shareholders’ meeting and to insert new items in the meeting’s agenda.

The students, who come from many countries (including China), have much appreciated this unique opportunity to compare the Italian and Chinese legal environments.

Carone & Partners and Lehman, Lee & Xu entered into an alliance in 2004 which is producing excellent results for both firms.

In 2005, Edward Lehman, managing partner of Lehman, Lee & Xu, and Marco Carone delivered a lecture at Bocconi Unversity, comparing the general structure of Italian and Chinese company law.

For more information about Carone & Partners and Lehman, Lee & Xu, please visit their respective websites at www.cplex.it and www.lehmanlaw.com.