After graduating with honours from the University La Sapienza in Rome with a thesis on “The localisation of waste disposal plants”, Francesco continued at the same University with a PhD in “Organisation and functioning of the Public Administration” with a thesis on “Administrative coordination in environmental matters”.

He has been qualified to exercise the profession of lawyer since 1995, and to plead before the higher courts since 2007. He deals primarily with administrative litigation and consultancy in environmental law.

He worked, in his capacity as an expert, within the Cabinet Office and the Minister’s Secretariat of the civil service under the Ciampi Government (1993/1994). He was also a member of the Ministerial Commission for the reform of the Ministry of the Environment and of many research groups within public and private institutions (the three Universities of Rome, the University of Tuscia, the Institute for regional studies, Nomisma, the Institute for the Environment, Confindustria and the Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente).

From 1998 to 2009 he was a temporary professor in environmental law at the Faculty of Economics at the University della Tuscia (Viterbo).

Since 2010, in his capacity as an adjunct professor, he has carried out integrated teaching activities on the topic “Environmental law – general section” as part of the Environmental Law course at the University of Rome III’s Faculty of Law. He is also coordinator and lecturer at the same faculty for two level II master modules in environmental law.

In addition to writing for leading law journals on a regular basis, he has been a speaker at various congresses and a lecturer at courses and master degree programmes in his specialised subjects for Italy’s main institutions and universities.

He speaks Italian, English and French.