Can an Italian lawyer be disciplined for sharing case details on social media without client consent?

Italian lawyers face strict confidentiality obligations under Article 9 of the Codice Deontologico Forense that make social media posts about cases particularly risky. Professional secrecy covers not just client names but any information that could allow identification, and the Ordine degli Avvocati interpret this broadly when reviewing social media content.

The main risk with case summaries or client references is that even when you think you've anonymized properly, contextual details like timing, location, type of legal issue, or the specificity of your practice area can make clients identifiable.

Italian deontological rules also restrict advertising to require that professional communications be dignified, truthful, and non-promotional in ways that Anglo-American lawyers might find restrictive. Posting about successful outcomes or interesting cases can be viewed as inappropriate self-promotion even if confidentiality is technically preserved.

The safest practice is discussing legal principles through purely hypothetical examples with no connection to real cases, or commenting on already-published court decisions using only information from the public judgment. If you wants to reference actual client work, you need documented written consent, though this doesn't eliminate disciplinary risk entirely since the advertising rules still apply. Bar councils have imposed sanctions ranging from formal warnings to temporary suspension for social media violations, and enforcement has increased as lawyers have become more active online. The threshold for what constitutes a breach is generally lower and more conservative than in common law jurisdictions.