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London 26 July 2004Read all today’s law news and news releases at LAWFUEL
DLA announced today that it will open an office in Rome on 1 September 2004. The new office will significantly enhance DLA’s Italian practice based in Milan which opened in October 2003 following the firm’s integration with the Italian branch of Coudert Brothers.
The team in Rome will include nine lawyers, including two new partners, Francesco Cerasi and Roberto Pera, and Stefano Modenesi, who is currently a partner in DLA’s Milan office. Stefano will relocate to Rome when the office opens in September.
Corporate specialist, Francesco Cerasi, formerly a partner at Ernst & Young Legal (EY LAW) before joining DLA, also spent three years with Andersen Legal and eight years at Macchi di Cellere Gangemi. Corporate and commercial partner Roberto Pera, who was formerly at Vassalli prior to joining DLA, will join Francesco. Roberto has worked at Allen & Overy and gained significant experience as in-house counsel of Infineon AG Group in Munich.
Maria Laura Ninno, an associate who previously worked at Andersen Legal and EY LAW and Fabrizio Morelli, also an associate, who formerly worked at Allen & Overy, will join the partners. Fabrizio will head up the labour department in Italy. Additional members of the team in Rome include Fabio De Paolis, a lawyer and trainees Barbara di Donato, Valeria Spagnoletti-Zeuli and Pietro Maria Vacca.
The Milan office will also be strengthened by a new arrival in September with the appointment of banking and finance lawyer Manlio Niccolai, who formerly worked at Lovells, Macchi di Cellere Cangemi and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer before joining DLA as a partner.
Federico Sutti, DLA Regional Managing Partner for Italy, commented: “The steps taken are the first ones on a path of improvement for our Italian practice and are fully consistent with the program agreed with the Board of DLA, which strongly believes in our national market and has undertaken to invest in it. We continue to monitor the market with the utmost attention and to search for capable lawyers who wish to contribute to our growth on the Italian scene, even though our target is not a mere increase in numbers of DLA in Italy.”
Commenting on the opening of the new office in Rome, Nigel Knowles, DLA Managing Partner said: “The Italian market has always been important to DLA’s long-term strategic vision and our practice in Milan has performed extremely well since it became part of DLA in October 2003 under Federico Sutti’s leadership. We always planned to develop the Italian practice and I am delighted to launch the new Rome office with such a strong team. Their expertise will enable us to offer considerable benefits to our clients and will enable DLA to build on the growth and reputation already achieved in Italy through the Milan office.”