Vanessa RuffaPartner
A member of the Paris Bar since 2009, Vanessa Ruffa is a partner and co-head of the Litigation & Mediation practice at CastaldiPartners. She has dual French and Italian nationality.
Career
Vanessa Ruffa has significant experience in commercial litigation, acquired at international law firms. Before joining CastaldiPartners, she was a partner at De Gaulle Fleurance & Associés in 2020, then headed the Dispute Resolution department at Simon Associés for four years, where she founded the Italian Desk.
Vanessa Ruffa is a certified mediator (ESCP/CMAP) and is listed as a mediator with the Chambre Arbitrale de la Grande Distribution (CAGD).
Her working languages are French, English, and Italian.
Representative Matters
- Defense of a French industrial group in a post-acquisition dispute against an American company concerning a price supplement and the implementation of an asset and liability guarantee, as part of a €200 million transaction.
- Defense of an investment fund in a dispute initiated by an outgoing partner concerning the conditions of his statutory exclusion, which gave rise to a priority preliminary ruling on constitutionality (QPC) on the statutory exclusion of a partner from an SAS.
- Assisted a healthcare technology operator in a follow-on legal action worth €150 million, raising corporate law issues relating to the scope of a transfer by partial contribution of a branch of activity.
- Defense of a healthcare company in a complex dispute, both public and private, against a major American operator, in an international context (France/United States) and involving several million euros.
- Defense of a hotel company in complex litigation relating to the conversion of an office building into a five-star Parisian hotel, opposing it to a real estate operator in the context of a high-end construction project.
- Defense of a leading banking institution in a complex mortgage fraud case.
- Assistance to a financial institution in complex international debt collection proceedings.
- Assistance to several banking institutions in the implementation of first demand guarantees (GAPD).
- Defense of a national sports federation and its foreign insurer in a high-stakes liability action brught following an accident during a national competition that resulted in serious bodily injury.
Speaking Engagements
- Organisation of and participation in various conferences and seminars on issues related to dispute resolution.
- Speaker on generative AI applied to law 2024/2025, LexiDay, AI Summit, Appointment with legal transformations.
- Speaker at the webinar: Litigation clauses: jurisdiction clauses.
Publications
- Interview: Words from the experts, Guide for decision-makers on litigation and arbitration, 2024 and 2025 editions.
- V. Ruffa and C. Théard-Jallu, Covid-19 vaccine: who is liable in the event of side effects? PharmaNetwork magazine, October 2020.
- V. Ruffa and L. de Gaulle, Digital law: the errors of the dematerialisation of judicial proceedings, Dalloz IP/IT, March 2018.
Academic Activities
- Vanessa was an assistant to Professor Christian Larroumet at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and was responsible for seminars on Introduction to Civil Law, Contract Law and Property Law.
Pro Bono Activities
- Former member of the board of directors and member of the association Toutes à l'École.
- Member of the Electoral Operations Commission (CSOE) of the French Federation of Karate and Associated Disciplines (FFKDA).
- Assisting and representing a Paralympic athlete.
Education
- CMAP
- HEDAC
- Université Paris II, Panthéon-Assas
Vanessa RuffaPartner