Gianni Origoni loses partners from New York and Rome operations

Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners has been hit by the departure of two partners, losing New York head Stefano Crosio and Rome litigation chief Aulo Cossu.

Gianni Origoni rotates the managing partner for New York every three years and Crosio opted to join the New York office of Jones Day instead of returning to Italy.

In Rome, Aulo Cossu joined 11-partner independent law firm Janni Fauda Brescia e Associati.

Crosio, an M&A specialist, was Gianni Origoni's only partner in the New York office, but a spokesperson for Gianni Origoni restated the firm's intentions to keep the office going despite his departure. "The firm wants to maintain a New York presence, we're just evaluating who will be the person to replace Stefano," she said.

"He wanted to stay in the US and that was not possible for us."

Gianni Origoni became the first Italian law firm to establish a New York office with a resident partner in 1988. Chiomenti followed suit in 2003.

Janni Fauda Brescia has added two partners to its Rome office in the past few months, scooping capital markets specialist Paolo Saramei from Clifford Chance in March.

Name partner Guido Fauda said that the hire of Cossu balances the firm's finance and litigation practices. "We consider capability in litigation very important for the domestic market," he said. "The firm is now about 50 per cent litigation and 50 per cent M&A, private equity and finance."