ITALY – Latham & Watkins to bolster Milan office and open Rome branch

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23 November 2007

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Latham & Watkins is expanding its Italian practice with the launch of a local law capability. The additions to the Milan office and the new Rome team join the Italian practice from its peer Bonelli Erede Pappalardo.

The newcomers include partners Andrea Novarese, Maria Cristina Storchi, Fabio Coppola, Tommaso Amirante and Simone Monesi, who will join Latham & Watkins in the fields of M&A, private equity, equity and debt capital markets, as well as banking and finance.

The law firm advises Italian companies and investment banks on the international aspects of their capital market transactions, M&A and other corporate transactions. Deals included advising the Carlyle Group in its EUR 1.7bn acquisition of the commercial aero-engines, aerospace and defense business Avio SpA. and its subsequent sale of the aerospace engine maker to Cinven in a deal that gave Avio an enterprise value of EUR 2.57bn. The firm has also acted as legal counsel in the EUR 29.6bn merger of Banca Intesa and SanPaolo IMI.

The team of partners include Andrea Novarese, a finance partner with a focus on banking and finance matters, including acquisition finance, project finance, equipment finance, real estate finance and capital markets work. He joined Bonelli Erede Pappalardo in 1999. Previously, he served as an in-house counsel for the Banca Commerciale Italiana (now Intesa SanPaolo) at its head office in Milan between 1994 and 1998, and at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1999. Novarese graduated from the University of Pavia in 1989 and obtained an LL.M. from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1992.

Another addition to the team is Maria Cristina Storchi, who focuses on M&A, in particular complex financing transactions, leveraged buyouts, privatisations, exchange and tender offers, corporate restructuring transactions, public tender and exchange offers, as well as domestic and international acquisitions. In addition, Storchi serves as a corporate advisor to several listed companies. She joined Bonelli Erede Pappalardo in 1995. She graduated from the University of Milan in 1988.