Simmons & Simmons

Alessandro has a wide-ranging expertise in the banking and finance sector and has experience in working in a range of sectors and industries, including financial services, real estate and energy and infrastructure. Alessandro is a Counsel in our Financial Markets group within the banking team in Milan. He has extensive experience in advising on acquisition finance, real estate finance, project finance and debt restructuring in cross-border and domestic transactions and regularly advises the major Italian and foreign banks on a wide range of matters.

Andrea Tonon

Andrea advises private equity and other alternative asset fund managers, institutional investors, banks, banking foundations, financial intermediaries, investment firms, and financial institutions on all matters regarding the alternative funds industry. He has solid experience in assisting clients on the Italian and international investment management market and focuses on private equity, venture capital, real estate, funds of funds, co-investment funds, infrastructure funds, SICAFs and structured products. Andrea has assisted public and private parties in numerous transactions involving investment funds and provides support in liaising with the Italian authorities.

Andrea Accornero

Andrea specialises in private equity and M&A and has extensive experience of corporate and private equity transactions for both Italian and international players. Andrea is the Italy Country Head and specialises in transactions for both Italian and international funds with a focus on private equity and M&A. He has advised some of the most respected and recognised players on a continuous basis on their acquisitions, disposals, restructurings and refinancings.

Anna Colmano

Anna has wide-ranging expertise in IP matters and is particularly skilled at advising Italian and international clients. Anna is a Counsel in our IP practice in Milan. She has extensive experience in a wide range of IP matters including patents, trademarks and domain names, appellations of origin and geographical indications, industrial design, copyright and related rights, unfair competition, trade secrets and arbitration. Anna has considerable experience in drafting commercial agreements, in particular licence agreements of IP rights and NDAs.

Baldassarre Battista

Baldassarre is a managing associate in the Financial Markets group in the Milan office, focusing on debt capital markets. His experience covers a wide range of products within capital markets, focusing on offers and listings of debt instruments, as well as tender and exchange offers of securities for both Italian and international clients. He also provides assistance in relation to Eurobonds, project bonds and liability management exercises.

Christian Turotti

Christian is a supervising associate in the Real Estate team in Milan. He advises clients with all matters and transactions related to real estate law, including the acquisition and disposal of real estate assets and portfolios, lease agreements, real estate financing, and the development and redevelopment of projects. His expertise extends to fund formation and liquidation, handling distressed assets, and engaging in other corporate real estate activities, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and joint ventures. Christian has represented a diverse clientele, including asset management companies and investment funds, developers, corporations, financial institutions, both domestically and internationally. He works on transactions involving office spaces, commercial and residential properties, hotels, industrial sites, and logistics assets. Christian's experience also includes significant contributions to ESG transactional investments and regulatory compliance issues. His ESG-related work in the real estate sector encompasses the acquisition and sale of ESG-certified real estate assets, refurbishments to enhance building efficiency, guidance on obtaining ESG certifications, green financing, the installation of renewable energy systems, lease agreements for nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) or zero-emission buildings (ZEB), land reclamation, brownfield redevelopment, and the establishment of sustainable real estate investment funds.

Dario Spinella

Dario is a partner of our Milan office and co-heading our Italian Real Estate practice as well as the Asian Desk in Italy. Dario has extensive experience on M&A, corporate real estate, private equity and restructuring transactions for both Italian and international clients. He has advised some of the most recognised players on their acquisitions, disposals of both assets and shares, restructuring and refinancing transactions. He is registered as foreign attorney of the Law Society of Hong Kong and he is co-founder and member of the Hungarian-Italian cultural association in Venice and a former member of the management committee of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

Davide Coppola

Davide specialises in all aspects of Italian and EU competition law and advises clients on a wide variety of competition law matters, including merger control, cartel cases, abuse of dominance, restrictive practices and vertical agreements. He represents Italian and international companies in proceedings before the Italian Competition Authority regarding violations of competition law and unfair commercial practices as well as in subsequent appeals before the competent administrative and civil courts. He also provides support in legal proceedings involving compensation for damage due to violations of competition law. Davide assists clients in matters concerning state aid, distribution agreements, discount policies, unfair competition and abuse of economic dependence, as well as during inspections and dawn raids. He often participates in antitrust IT investigations and internal audits and is experienced in the preparation of antitrust compliance programmes.

Davide Sportelli

Davide has extensive expertise in advising Italian and international companies and financial institutions on a wide range of employment matters. Davide heads our Employment group in Milan. He advises on all aspects of employment law, both in and out of court. He works closely with clients to handle individual and collective dismissals, termination of employment relationships with executives and related negotiations, and employment aspects of corporate transactions. Being an expert in relations with the trade unions, Davide also advises on mandatory trade union consultation procedures for collective dismissals, also on a national level. Davide is dedicated to keeping his clients abreast of employment news and regularly holds training events and workshops on employment developments in Italy.

Davide D'Affronto

Davide heads the Financial Markets group in Milan. He has extensive experience in banking; advising on acquisition financing, leveraged and cross border syndicated lending, and debt restructuring. He also has considerable experience in project financing, asset finance, trade and export finance.

Edoardo Tedeschi

Edoardo is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial group, leading the Digital Business practice and the TMT sector in Italy. He specializes in national and cross-border M&A, corporate transactions and large-scale project contracts primarily related to Tech and data monetization (from Telco to Automotive, from HLS to Financial Institutions and data centre). Edoardo advises international clients on acquisitions, development capital and day-to-day business operations within the TMT and Digital Business sectors. He has mentored a number of incubators and start-up. He oversees GDPR and AI and data-related issues, focusing on compliance, cross border transfers as well as blockchain and crypto matters. Edoardo co-leads the Automotive Tech group globally and the Italian Cybersecurity and Insurtech Task Force, advising on mobility, smart cities, and data platforms. Recently he has been focused specifically on the evolution of the digital therapeutics in HLS as well as the use of alternative data to boost clinical trials and drug discovery (from insilico to gravity zero generated data). He has mentored our GreenTech Fund and advises on ESG rating platforms for banks and insurance companies.

Emanuela Boca

Emanuela has nearly 20 years of experience in employment law matters, industrial relations, and employment law litigation. She is an of counsel in our Employment group in Milan. She represents some of the largest international luxury and fashion companies before civil and employment courts and the Italian Supreme Court on a wide range of employment matters. Emanuela also provides day-to-day assistance to clients on non-contentious matters. These include smart-working projects; employee hires, transfers and terminations; protection against parallel importing; background checks; GDPR-related issues; social media policies; whistleblowing and related policies; and investigations and disciplinary procedures. She joined us in 2001 and has completed various secondments to our main clients within their HR and legal division. She regularly leads legal seminars on employment law matters and cooperates in reviewing caselaw developments. She is a member of the European Employment Lawyers Association (EELA).

Emanuela Molinaro

Emanuela is a partner in our Real Estate group in Italy, which is part of our Corporate & Commercial Department. Emanuela Molinaro has a significant and consolidated experience, gained in around 20 years of advising on real estate and corporate transactions, with particular reference to real estate acquisitions and development, single assets or complex portfolios, as well as the structuring of investment funds and development joint ventures. She assists institutional and non-institutional investors, both Italian and international, in real estate investments and developments in Italy, in sale and lease back transactions on commercial properties, regarding specific real estate contracts in relation to diversified asset classes.

Ferdinando Nicotra

Ferdinando has extensive experience in matters of EU and Italian antitrust and competition law, also thanks to his experience at the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission in Brussels. He especially focusses on M&A transactions, litigation, compensation for antitrust damage, cartels, and vertical agreements and represents Italian and international groups before the Italian Competition Authority, the European Commission, and the national authorities of EU member states. Ferdinando also represents clients before the national administrative courts (Lazio Regional Administrative Court and the Council of State) and before the specialised divisions of the ordinary courts concerning a variety of sectors and markets. He assists Italian and international clients on internal antitrust audits and in drafting and implementing antitrust compliance programmes, antitrust codes and internal guidelines, and in the training of clients’ employees regarding antitrust matters. He also provides extrajudicial assistance and assistance on matters of IT, new technologies, and digital transformation to tech companies (including innovative startups) that operate in IT, AI, Big Data, and New Digital Services.

Giulio Enrico Sironi

Giulio is a partner in the IP practice in our Milan office. He has a long track record of judicial and extra-judicial cases in all IP-related sectors. This includes patents, trademarks and domain names, appellations of origin and geographical indications, industrial design, copyright and related rights, unfair competition, trade secrets and arbitration. Giulio is associate professor of IP Law at the Catholic University of Milan, Faculty of Economics, and has also held a number of courses on patent legislation at the University of Parma. He regularly presents papers and attends domestic and international conferences and holds lessons at postgraduate courses such as several editions of the Industrial Property Course – Patents organised by the Polytechnic University of Milan as well as the post-graduate classes on Intellectual Property organised by Just Legal Services. He has authored a monograph, commentaries and a series of articles and comments in the IP field published by well-known law review publications for many years.

Irene Pellecchia

Irene is a Counsel in the Financial Markets group and part of the Tax team in the Milan office. She is a lawyer admitted to the Italian Supreme Court and to the Italian Constitutional Court. She has over 20 years' experience in handling complex pre-litigation and litigation proceedings, with a particular focus on disputes relating to international taxation, abuse of law, corporate and financial taxation. She also daily deals with domestic and cross-border rulings and advance agreement requests (APA, MAP, etc.), as well as with technical advice in criminal matters. Irene advises a wide range of clients, including investment funds, banks, multinational companies and individuals. She has authored several legal publications on tax litigation and gives speeches at conferences, masters, and training courses.

Laura Fiordelisi

Laura is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial group in Milan and she has gained significant experience in corporate law, focusing mainly on M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions. In almost two decades of experience, she has assisted a number of private equity funds helping them navigate every stage of the investment life cycle, from acquisition through exit. She has been involved in several complex transactions, including cross border mergers and acquisitions, carve-outs, consortium arrangements, minority investments, and disposal across a diverse range of industries, including consumer retail, food & beverage, manufacture, healthcare & life science. Laura also advises private equity sponsors and strategic buyers and sellers, Italian companies and international groups as well as founder-owned businesses and their acquirers.

Luigi Pontrelli

Luigi specialises in administrative law and has gained thorough experience in a number of sectors including public procurements, real estate, healthcare and life sciences. Luigi is a Counsel in our Dispute Resolution group within the Administrative Law team in Milan. His expertise in administrative and public law includes public procurement (especially concerning works and services concessions), renewables, environmental matters, town planning, and healthcare services. He has extensive experience in handling contentious matters in the above areas both before the regional administrative courts and the Council of State.

Marco Palanca

Marco is a partner in the Financial Markets group and leads the Tax team in the Milan office. He is a highly experienced tax advisor and qualified chartered accountant who specialises in the taxation of domestic and cross-border M&A and structured finance transactions for corporates and groups with large experience in private equity and private debt. He assists a wide range of clients including international and domestic investment funds, banks and multinational companies in some of the most important and complex deals in the market.

Marco Muratore

Marco is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial group in Milan and specialises in M&A, private equity and corporate reorganisations. He has wide-ranging experience in the corporate and commercial sector and in a variety of sectors and industries. His expertise includes private and public M&A (both outbound, inbound, cross-border and domestic), private equity, joint ventures and strategic alliances, general corporate law and commercial contracts.

Maria Giusy Naccarato

Maria Giusy has wide-ranging expertise in the asset management and financial institutions sectors. She regularly advises banks, investment funds, asset management companies, investment firms and insurance companies. Maria Giusy is a Counsel in our Financial Markets group within our financial services regulatory team in Milan. She focuses on investment services, financial instruments, asset management, insurance products, investment funds and market regulation. Maria Giusy regularly provides advice in relation to cross-border regulatory projects, including passporting procedures and the obtaining of the required local licences from relevant regulators. A key part of this process being ensuring that applicable EU legislation (including MiFID) is adequately reflected in the setup of domestic and international financial institutions operating in Italy. In this context, Maria Giusy also provides advice in relation to contractual documentation, market regulation and applicable on-going reporting duties. She is frequent speaker at industry conferences and author of several articles on investment services for industry publications.

Maria Ilaria Griffo

Maria Ilaria has a considerable experience in banking acting across a broad range of domestic and cross-border bank finance transactions. Maria Ilaria is a managing associate in our Financial Markets group within the Banking team in Milan. Her experience includes advising domestic and international banks, private equity funds, private and listed companies on a wide range of domestic and cross-border banking transactions including acquisition and leveraged finance, syndicated loans, asset finance, corporate lending, real estate finance as well as debt restructuring. She has also considerable experience in private placements.

Martina Baraldo

Martina specialises in administrative law and has gained wide-ranging experience in a number of sectors including real estate, town planning and renewables. Martina is a Supervising associate in our Dispute Resolution group within the Administrative Law team in Milan. Her expertise in administrative and public law includes building regulations, town planning, waste management, energy, environmental law as well as public procurement and healthcare services. Martina is also regularly involved in disputes before the Regional Administrative Courts and the Italian courts. Her experience covers all the different stages within the litigation process, including the preparation of the claims and the litigation strategy. Martina also regularly advises both domestic and foreign clients in relation to foreign direct investment (FDI) control issues.

Mauro Pisapia

Mauro specialises in administrative law and has gained thorough experience in a number of sectors including real estate, public procurements, environment, healthcare and life sciences. Mauro heads both our Dispute Resolution practice and the Administrative Law team in Milan. His expertise in administrative and public law includes public tender procedures, building regulations and town planning, public contracts and concessions, energy, healthcare services, public infrastructure, expropriation procedures, environmental matters, procedures involving public and private works procurements, foreign direct investment (FDI) process, administrative and accounting liability of public employees. He also assists in judicial and extrajudicial matters concerning town planning, public contracts, environmental law, and energy law. He is qualified to practice before the Supreme Court and assists clients before the Regional Administrative Courts, the Council of State, the Court for the Supervision of Public Accounts and arbitration boards. Mauro is a member of arbitration boards and boards of directors of companies operating in the public concessions sector. He is also a member of the Administrative Justice Committee founded by the Milan Bar Association and a member of the Lombardy Administrative Lawyers Association.

Mirella Di Carlo

Mirella has wide-ranging expertise in relation to regulated markets. Mirella is a senior associate in our financial services regulatory team within the Financial Markets group in Milan. She focuses on financial markets (including the insurance market and insurance products), where she has a strong expertise of investment services, financial instruments, structured products and derivatives (both credit and equity derivatives), asset management, investment funds and market regulation. Mirella regularly provides advice in relation to cross-border regulatory projects, including passporting procedures and the obtaining of the required local licences from relevant regulators. A key part of this process is ensuring that applicable EU legislation (including MiFID, MiFID II, Insurance Distribution Directive and EMIR) is adequately reflected in the operations of domestic and international financial institutions operating in Italy. She regularly assists ETFs in listing on, and delisting from, the ETFPlus market managed and regulated by Borsa Italiana and provides advice in relation to listing on-going requirements. She also provides advice in relation to Brexit implications in financial services and payment services directive and payment means.

Nicholas Lasagna

Nicholas’ practice has a particular focus on leveraged finance, acquisition finance (both sponsor-driven and corporate), syndicated loans, bond private placements, project bonds, debt restructurings and real estate finance matters. Nicholas is a partner in our Financial Markets group within the Banking team in Milan. He advises clients on a broad range of bank finance and capital markets transactions. He has a significant track record representing domestic and international arrangers and lenders, sponsors and borrowers in high profile transactions within the Italian market. Clients also benefit from Nicholas' proven ability to take a lead role in complex, multi-jurisdictional deals combining loans and bonds in the context of corporate and sponsor-driven acquisitions.

Paola Leocani

Paola heads the Debt Capital Markets group in the Milan office. She has more than 20 years' experience in advising Italian and international clients, corporate, financial institutions and banks, sovereign and supranational entities, on securities transactions and regulatory matters related to debt issuances with a particular focus on debuts, and first-of-its-kind transactions. This has led her to advise numerous Italian issuers on their debuts on the Eurobond market as well as on the Italian retail market, on several pilot deals such as recently the first green bond issued by FS, the first Project Bond issued by an Italian Company as well as the first and only Neutral non-dilutive Equity Linked issued in Italy. Paola regularly consults with key players in the Italian market, including the Italian Stock Exchange, the Italian Securities and Exchange Commission (CONSOB), the Bank of Italy, the Italian Government and a range of influential industry associations. She had an important role in the process that brought the approval of crucial capital markets reforms, such as those allowing unlisted companies to issue bonds directly through a favourable corporate and tax regime. Paola has been the only legal practitioner promoting the reform of liability management transactions in Italy and was involved in the preparation of the CONSOB Issuers Regulation regarding these transactions. as well as, more recently, the green and sustainable bonds reform which is still in progress. Paola is an expert in green and sustainable finance, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Riccardo Pennisi

Riccardo has solid experience in the various facets of competition law and has assisted Italian and international clients in proceedings before the Italian Competition Authority concerning violation of Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. He has supervised the various phases of proceedings before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court and the Council of State, as well as civil litigation concerning antitrust damages. He has been part of defence council in proceedings concerning violation of Article 101 and initiated by the European Commission, and in the subsequent stages before the EU courts. He has also assisted in assessing numerous mergers and managing multi-jurisdictional notifications. Riccardo’s work has also included assisting in proceedings involving state aid and abuse of economic dependence and unfair business practices, as well as in internal audits and preparation of antitrust compliance courses. Riccardo is also experienced in assessing and tailoring distribution agreements. Riccardo teaches competition law for various master’s courses and is one of the founders of the association Concorrenze.

Romeo Battigaglia

Romeo focuses on financial markets, where he has extensive knowledge of investment services, financial instruments, structured products and derivatives, asset management, investment funds and market regulation. Romeo is the leading partner of our Italian financial services regulatory team in Milan. He regularly provides advice in relation to cross-border regulatory projects, including passporting procedures and the obtaining of the required local licences from relevant regulators (including cross border licenses to enable UK based firms to continue offering their services in Italy after BREXIT). A key part of this process is ensuring that applicable EU legislation (including MiFID and AIFMD) is adequately reflected in the operations of domestic and international financial institutions and asset managers operating in Italy. In the context of his area of expertise, Romeo also works for listed companies in relation to stock exchange regulatory issues and related corporate matters. He is a regular speaker at seminars and is the author of several articles on topics related to financial services, structured products, asset management, investment funds and market regulation. Romeo is mentioned in all major legal directories as a financial services, funds and regulatory expert. He has also been Strategy Director of the Italian association Select Milano for 4 years, which was launched on the verge of BREXIT to identify and pursue opportunities for attracting businesses in Milan from London.

Simone Lucatello

Simone is a partner in the Financial Markets Group and co-heads the structured finance group in the Milan office. He is qualified to practice law in Italy and New York. His practice focuses on structured finance and securitisation transactions, having gained a particular experience on complex public and private securitisations on various performing and non-performing assets, structured project financing and refinancing arrangements also through hybrid transactions and private debt transactions.

Stefania Bergia

Stefania is a partner in our Milan office IP practice. She assists clients, including on a pan-European level, on a extensive range of judicial and extra-judicial matters of IP law, including patents, trademarks and domain names, trade secrets, appellations of origin and geographical indications, industrial design, copyright and related rights, unfair competition, and arbitration. Stefania has a longstanding relationship with the University of Parma, where over the years she has taught a course entitled "Legislation and Patents - Chemical and Biotech Patents and GMO Legislation". She teaches for postgraduate courses, including those held by the Italian School for the Judiciary (Scuola Superiore della Magistratura), and is a lecturer for the annual "Industrial Property - Patents" course organised by the Polytechnic University of Milan as well as for Just Legal Services' post-graduate courses on IP matters. She was also recently involved in an online course organised by Harvard University. Stefania has presented papers at conferences and authored publications in the IP field.

Stefano Lava

Stefano is a partner in our Employment group in Milan and specialises in the management of human resources and in the employment law. Stefano assists Italian and international clients in the management of issues such as individual and collective dismissals, international secondments, employment contracts (relating to subordinate and independent employment relationships), outsourcing processes, the employment aspects of corporate transactions and the restructuring and reorganisation of companies, dealing with labour and trade union aspects. Stefano also assists clients with disruptive and innovative business models: over time he has acquired significant experience in dealing with gig-economy and platform employment issues and an in-depth comprehension of the future of work dynamics. Stefano has specific skills in agency-related issues, including agency contracts with a particular focus on the independent financial advisors’ sector, and distribution agreements, as well as in the management of issues concerning relationships with top managers.

Tommaso Canepa

Tommaso is a partner in the Financial Markets Group and co-heads the structured finance group in the Milan office. He is experienced in advising in banking and finance matters, focusing in particular on CRM instruments, synthetic securitisations, traditional securitisations aiming at recognition of SRT and NPL traditional securitisations. He has acted for a wide range of arrangers, originators and investors in these products, including public sector institutions.

Vincenzo Salvatore

Vincenzo is a leading authority on Healthcare and Life sciences regulatory matters. He both advises clients on a broad spectrum of aspects related to the pharma and medical device product lifecycle and routinely represents them before national competent authorities and the European Court of Justice. Vincenzo is a partner in our Healthcare and Life Sciences Sector in Milan. He has a wide-ranging expertise in regulatory matters with a focus on clinical trials, orphan designation and marketing authorisation procedures, pharmacovigilance, data protection, market access, price and reimbursement, implementation of new technologies, AI and digital initiatives, inspections and enforcement.

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