Profile

Roberta Berzero is a Legal Officer at the World Bank, Special Litigation Unit - Directorate of Operations of the Integrity Vice-Presidency (as of April 2013). She is a former associate of the dispute resolution group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Rome and Vienna offices), where she focused on investment and commercial arbitration. After two periods of study in the Republic of Argentina (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina) and France (Université Paris X), she completed her legal education at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (July 2008). Roberta also holds a LL.M. degree in International Legal Studies from the New York University School of Law (May 2009) and is a prospective Ph.D. candidate at University of Rome3.

Before joining the World Bank Group and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Roberta worked as an intern at the European Commission in Brussels, at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York, at the Beijing Arbitration Commission in Beijing and in a leading Chinese law firm in Shanghai. Roberta speaks Italian, English, French, Spanish and has conversational knowledge of German.

Company Profile

The World Bank Group is not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development. The Integrity Vice- Presidency (INT) shares in the World Bank Group's overall mission of poverty reduction. Within the Bank Group it is INT's role to detect and deter fraud and corruption in the use of the Group's financial resources.

As one of two Directorates in INT, the Directorate of Operations (INTOP) is tasked with professionally identifying, investigating, litigating and resolving cases of fraud, corruption, collusion, coercion and obstruction in World Bank-funded projects. Within this framework INTOP's Special Litigation Unit (SLU) follows an innovative concept that transforms Common and Civil Law prosecutorial functions into an administrative and public international law setting.