Clifford Chance chief makes Italian rich list

Clifford Chance's (CC) joint managing partner for Italy has made a shock entry into the top 200 of Italy's richest inhabitants, after earning almost £2m in taxable income in 2001. Nicholas Wrigley is in good company on the list, which features fashion icons Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace and Juventus football star Alessandro Del Piero.

Wrigley is sitting comfortably at number 195 in the latest list of Italy's wealthiest tax payers, based on his taxable income of £1,959,172 for 2001, according to the latest figures released by the Italian Ministry of Finance and published by news website Panorama.it. The figure is well in excess of CC's top of equity, which stood at £855,000 for 2000-2001 and dipped to £815,000 for the last financial year. The massive figure is likely to include accelerated drawings received by CC partners in 2001 as well as Wrigley's overseas secondment package from the firm, such as house rental. He was unavailable for comment.

A total of 45 lawyers feature in the top 500. Slaughter and May best friend Bonelli Erede Pappalardo has an impressive six partners in the upper echelons, with Sergio Erede highest at number 16, on £7.5m.

Also prominent are the ex-CC partners who quit the firm amid controversy last year with former senior partner Vittorio Grimaldi.

Francesco Gianni, managing partner of Linklaters' associated firm Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners, also makes a high entry at number 69, based on a figure of £3.2m.

•There are no female lawyers in the Italian rich list, but in the UK eleven female lawyers feature in The Mail on Sunday's "superwomen" rich list, released last week. Female partners at Slaughter and May dominated the list with all of the firm's nine female equity partners, including high-profile competition lawyer Laura Carstensen, featuring strongly.