Italian alumnus Matteo Smacchi LLM ’11 has long been committed to professional and personal service. After earning the Professor Samuel Gyandoh Award for rendering outstanding service to Temple Law upon his graduation, Matteo has gone on to a distinguished career in the public and private sector.
Matteo Smacchi LLM ’11
Matteo currently serves as the Head of Legal and Compliance for the SDA Express Courier services within Poste Italiane—one of Italy’s largest companies with over 120,000 employees. He is directly responsible for all legal and compliance oversight of the express courier business unit and distribution activities. In his role, he particularly appreciates the unique opportunity to engage in strategic decision-making for the company and the ability to interact with other professionals who lack legal backgrounds.
Prior to his current role at Poste Italiane, Matteo spent eight years working for large, international law firms in Philadelphia and Rome. He then made the decision to transition out of law firm practice. Playing the role of in-house counsel, Matteo first served as the Head of Corporate Affairs at both Banca Generali and the airline company managing Rome’s airports. These positions offered Matteo a more holistic approach to the law, thus contrasting with his prior associate positions where he specialized in only one or two areas. During his corporate and business engagements at these large law firms, Matteo even went on to obtain a Doctor of Law and Economics degree from Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome.
Matteo attributes much of his professional success in both the law firm and corporate domains to his study in Temple’s LL.M. program. Matteo said, “Temple University helped me to open my mind.” Drawing on his time living in Philadelphia—the city which he calls his second home to Rome—Matteo attested to the exchange of different experiences through cultural diversity, and the impact that this distinct feature of Temple’s international LL.M. program had on his intellectual development and English language skills.
Engaging with students from Africa, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and South America was fundamental to Matteo’s overall educational experience while studying law in the United States. In addition, Matteo expressed sincere appreciation for Temple’s Philadelphia campus, alluding to the many hours that he spent with classmates in the Law Library after class, thus truly “living in the campus 100%.” Matteo said that Temple’s facility, campus, and the diversity among his classmates created a wonderful community and facilitated his success in legal studies.
Matteo gravitated toward business-oriented law classes during the LL.M. program, reporting that coursework involving international corporations, international contracts, and evidence law were among his favorites. One of Matteo’s most cherished memories from Temple was a moot court simulation as part of the Legal Research & Writing course in front of Judge Timothy Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Reminiscing on this unique experience to present an oral argument against a classmate, Matteo expressed deep appreciation for this fun and engaging opportunity to practice both his English language and oral argument skills before a practicing magistrate judge.
Above all, Matteo’s enrollment in Temple’s LL.M. program inspired his “love of law.” His experience at Temple encouraged him to pursue teaching and ongoing academia in his own life, as he currently serves as a visiting professor at various institutions across the world in India, Rome, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Matteo emphasized the importance of simultaneously studying and practicing the law as the key to being a well-rounded lawyer, and he manifests this philosophy in his own life by sustaining both academic and professional law careers.
