DLA Piper strengthens Italian energy team with Grimaldi hires

The team is headed by partner Francesco Novelli, one of Grimaldi’s three founders. It includes fellow Rome partners Giovanni Ragnoni Bosco Lucarelli and Francesco Satta together with eight associates. In Milan, partners Ugo Calò and Federico Zucconi Galli Fonseca are joining with seven associates.

Novelli has been appointed senior partner of DLA Piper in Italy and will also head up the Italian energy practice.

The group has a specific focus on energy, infrastructure and project finance work and will form part of DLA Piper’s corporate, finance and projects departments.

DLA Piper Italy managing partner Federico Sutti said the hires would make the firm a top-tier player in Italian energy work, and enable it to compete with the best domestic firms in Italy.

DLA Piper already has a sizeable team in Italy of 45 partners across Milan and Rome.

Grimaldi’s partners voted to dissolve the firm in December (13 December 2011) shortly after co-founder Roberto Cappelli left for Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners (8 November 2011).

Italian firm Tonucci & Partners became the first to pick up a Grimaldi partner when it announced the appointment of corporate finance and M&A lawyer Annalisa Pescatori in February (9 February 2012).