Bonelli hikes IP dept with swoop for Guglielmetti

Slaughter and May's Italian best friend Bonelli Erede Pappalardo has snapped up Milan IP boutique Studio Legale Guglielmetti as part of a plan to rebuild the practice following the death of promising senior associate Carlo Coppi last summer.

Bonelli added five lawyers in the swoop, almost doubling the number of lawyers in the IP practice to 11. The highly rated Giovanni Guglielmetti, a law professor at the state university in Milan, joined along with four associates.

A source at Bonelli said the firm is now looking to fill two more positions in IP.

Bonelli's hopes for the IP practice had rested on the shoulders of Carlo Coppi, who joined the firm from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in September 2004. He died in a motorcycle accident while on holiday in 2005.