peter@sparklegalnetwork.eu

Peter McNally is a Principal Consultant and Director of Business Development at Spark Legal Network, where he has been working since 2013. He is also the lead of Spark’s Internal Market, Industry and Competition policy area.

Peter has participated in and managed various studies for DG ENER, DG JUST, DG COMP, DG GROW, DG CONNECT, DG EMPL and DG EAC, often acting as senior legal expert or a quality assurance role. Most recently, he has acted in a quality assurance role for a number of DG JUST studies such as a Study to support an implementation report on the basis of Article 18(4) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of 5 July 2017 on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial, and a Compliance assessment of measures adopted by the Member States to adapt their systems to Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (‘the EPPO’).

Peter received a BCL from University College Cork in 2007, and an LL.M from Dublin University (Trinity College) in 2008. He was a Blue Book Stagiaire with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market and Services in 2010, and thereafter trained with a top tier Irish law firm, and is qualified to practice law in Ireland, England and Wales. In 2014 he completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Economics for Competition Law at Kings College London.

Peter is a native English speaker and also speaks French.

esther@sparklegalnetwork.eu

Esther Tenge is a Principal Consultant and Director of HR at Spark Legal Network. In addition, Esther leads the policy area of Communications Networks, Research and Technology. She joined Spark in 2017.

At Spark, Esther managed several projects, including a Study supporting the evaluation of Regulation (EU) 2018/1807 on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union, a Study on the implementation of the Concessions Directive (Directive 2014/23/EU), a Study on Assistance with the verification of compliance of national legislative measures implementing Directive (EU) 2018/2002 on energy efficiency and Directive (EU) 2018/844 on the energy performance of buildings and a Study on Blockchains.

Esther graduated from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, with a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy and also obtained an LL.M in European Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Prior to joining Spark, Esther worked closely with numerous European institutions and stakeholders as a consultant. In addition, she was a legal editor at Caselex, covering merger control decisions from the Dutch competition authorities.

Esther speaks fluent Dutch and English, and has a good understanding of French.

alexandra@sparklegalnetwork.eu

Alexandra Ongono Pomme is a Principal Consultant and Business Development Manager at Spark Legal Network where she has been working since January 2019. In addition, Alexandra leads the Justice and Home Affairs, and Governance, External Action and Regional Policy policy areas.

In her role as project and tender manager at Spark, Alexandra has coordinated numerous cross-border legal and policy projects and tenders in the areas of internal market, employment, fundamental rights, data security, competition and health for various DGs of the European Commission (e.g. GROW, SANTE, EMPL, JUST, CONNECT, COMP). Examples of projects coordinated by Alexandra are the following: Mapping and Assessment of Developments for Sectoral Professions under Directive 2005/36/EC: The Professions of Dental Practitioner and Pharmacist; Study on the identification of references to mandatory standards and to other mandatory technical specifications in the EU legislation; Evaluation Study of the eIDAS Regulation; Study on Enhancing implementation of the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive 2011/24/EU to ensure patient rights in the EU; Analysing Online Hatred in Selected EU Member States.

Alexandra holds a Masters in International Private Law from the University of Strasbourg, a Masters in Political and Social Sciences from Science Po Strasbourg, and an interdisciplinary PhD in EU law and history. In addition, she is a certified lawyer in Luxembourg. Prior to her time at Spark, Alexandra worked as a lawyer and policy advisor for the European Commission’s Legal Service, European Parliament and Erasmus+ funded projects, as well as law firms.

Alexandra speaks fluent English, French, German and Luxembourgish, and has a basic understanding of Dutch, Greek and Spanish.

celia@sparklegalnetwork.eu

Célia Drevon is a Senior Legal Consultant at Spark Legal Network, where she has been working since 2019. Célia is also the lead of Spark’s Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion policy area.

At Spark, Célia worked on several projects such as the ‘Study to identify and assess possible options for updating Council Directive 89/654/EEC concerning the minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace and Council Directive 90/270/EEC on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment’ and the ‘Study supporting the evaluation of the Quality Framework for Traineeships’. She also coordinated projects in the field of justice and criminal law, such as the ‘Study to support an implementation report on the basis of Article 18(4) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of 5 July 2017 on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law’ and the ‘Study to support the preparation of the initiative to extend the list of EU crimes in Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU to hate speech and hate crime’.

Prior to receiving a Master’s degree in European and International Law from the University of Lyon III, Célia completed a double Bachelor’s degree in Law and Languages at the University of Grenoble Alpes.

Before joining Spark, Célia completed an internship with the legal department of the European Maritime Safety Agency. She also worked for the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law UNIDROIT where she conducted comparative research in European criminal and procedural law.

Célia’s mother tongue is French and she speaks English and Italian.

Managing Legal Consultant and Data Protection Officer

Simona Čeh Savski is a Managing Legal Consultant and Data Protection Officer at Spark Legal Network, where she has been working since 2020.

Simona obtained a Bachelor and a Master’s degree in Law from the European Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Moreover, she is a Certified Data Protection Officer, having successfully completed the ECPC-B Professional DPO Certification from the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity at Maastricht University in 2022.

Simona gained working experience in various law firms in Slovenia. In addition, she was part of the International Legal Research Group on Renewable Energy and successfully completed the Jean Monnet Module on the subject of “CJEU’s Argumentation to Impact Slovene Courts’ Reasoning”.

Her mother tongue is Slovene, she speaks English and has a good command of French, German and Italian.

Oriana Gascon joined Spark in 2020, and holds the position of Legal Consultant.

Oriana obtained an LLB in Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2016 before graduating from the University of Leiden in 2018 with an LLM in European Law.

Prior to joining Spark, Oriana worked as a data analyst in financial market operations in London and subsequently completed a traineeship in case handling at the European Ombudsman. Oriana’s work experience also includes roles in the healthcare sector, education and marketing.

Her native languages are Greek, English and Spanish, and she has good knowledge of French.

Martina Ravaglia is a Legal Consultant at Spark Legal Network. She joined the company in 2020.

Martina concluded an LL.M in European Law at the College of Europe (Bruges, 2020). Previously, she completed a five-year degree in Law at Bocconi University in Milan, specializing in International and European Law. She participated at the Themis Programme, in the context of which she spent a semester at Maastricht University.

Before joining Spark, Martina conducted internships at the Consulate General of Italy in New York, a law firm in Milan, and at the European Commission in Luxembourg (DG ECFIN).

Her mother tongue is Italian, and she speaks English and French.

Chloe Fulcher is a Managing Legal Consultant at Spark Legal Network, where she has been working since 2020.

Before joining Spark, Chloe completed an LL.M in European Law at Leiden University (2020) in the Netherlands. Previously, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of East Anglia (2019) in the United Kingdom. During her bachelor’s degree, Chloe focused on a variety of subjects encompassing European, international, and comparative law and undertook an additional role as the Head of Mediation for the University’s Law Society.

Chloe is a native English speaker and has a good understanding of Spanish.

Giorgio Cassinari is a Junior Legal Consultant at Spark Legal Network. He joined Spark in 2021.

Giorgio obtained his Master’s degree in Law from the University of Trento in 2019 with a thesis on comparative corporate criminal liability. During his studies, Giorgio spent one semester at KU Leuven, where he mainly focused on European and International Law and Criminology.

Before starting at Spark, Giorgio worked at an international law firm in Milan, Italy, where he focused on regulatory investigations and financial crime. Giorgio also completed a traineeship with the European Parliament, where he assisted the work of the Secretariat of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Furthermore, Giorgio is admitted to the Italian Bar Association.

His mother tongue is Italian, he speaks English and has a basic knowledge of French.

Sara Lixa is Spark Legal Network’s Financial and Administrative Officer. She joined Spark in 2022.

Sara concluded a Master’s in Strategic Communication at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Previously, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the NOVA University of Lisbon, in Portugal. During her bachelor’s degree, Sara spent one semester at Università di Pisa, in Italy. She also joined a volunteer program in Kenya for three months, in 2017.

Before joining Spark, Sara worked at Solvay as a global voice of costumer analyst and at CVWarehouse as a Project and Communication assistant.

Her native language is Portuguese, she speaks English and has a good understanding of Spanish and French.

Guillaume Février is a trainee at Spark Legal Network and joined the company in 2023.

Guillaume received his Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB) from University of Burgundy in 2019 and his Master’s degree in Law and Languages from University of Nantes in 2021. During his Bachelor’s studies, he did an Erasmus exchange at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

Before joining Spark, he interned at a law firm in Bologna and at the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) where he conducted research on agricultural land investment contracts. In addition, he completed a Blue Book Traineeship at the European Commission in Brussels (DG AGRI) during which he worked in the field of Geographical Indications.

Guillaume’s mother tongue is French, he speaks English, Italian and Spanish and has a good understanding of Portuguese.