Linklaters attempts to rebuild Italy with Pedersoli raid

Linklaters has snatched star banking partners Andrea Arosio and Dario Longo from Pedersoli e Associati, as the firm continues to rebuild its Italian offering.

The move comes two weeks after the hire of banking and finance partner Davide Mencacci from Allen & Overy’s Milan office.

Linklaters Milan partner Sarosh Mewawalla said: “Effectively our strategy is to provide our international finance clients and domestic finance clients with top level legal advice in Italy. This is the first step.”

Mewawalla added that the firm would continue to grow in Italy through lateral hires: “We are actively looking at other people in other practice areas.”

Arosio and Longo moved to Pedersoli from Allen & Overy in February 2005, where they had developed respected practices advising banking clients such as Banca Intesa and Unicredit.

Longo specializes in capital markets and structured finance, while Arosio’s practice focuses on asset finance, restructuring and real estate finance.

Following the collapse of its alliance with Gianni Origoni Grippo in April 2004, Linklaters’ presence in Italy consisted of finance partners Sarosh Mewawalla and Luigi Sensi.

Linklaters now has five partners in Italy, after pursuing a strategy of cherry-picking star partners.