HSF Kramer has hit leading Italian firm BonelliErede for a five-lawyer banking team in Milan, led by highly rated banking partner Emanuela Da Rin.
Da Rin, who had been a partner at BonelliErede for more than 20 years, will lead HSF Kramer’s banking and finance practice in Milan. She is joined by a counsel and three associates.
Laura Orlando, managing partner of HSF Kramer’s Milan office, said the team’s hire marked a significant strengthening of the firm’s banking and finance practice, bringing “complementary expertise and deep market knowledge”.
Orlando added: “In recent years, the Milan office has progressively advanced towards a full-service model, with lateral hires and promotions reflecting this trajectory. The addition of Emanuela and her team represents a further step in this direction.”
Da Rin’s practice covers a broad spectrum of debt finance with a focus on real estate financing, corporate and acquisition finance, debt capital markets, securitisation and restructuring. She advises a client base of international and domestic financial institutions, including banks, investors and asset management companies, as well as Italian corporates.
Da Rin is the ninth partner in HSF Kramer’s Milan office – its sole location in Italy – where she will work alongside finance partner Simone Egidi, who is active across the finance spectrum with a particular focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors. HSF Kramer said that together they would offer clients a “cohesive finance platform capable of handling complex mandates across Italy and Europe”.
The firm also recently promoted Emily Bottle to partner in the IP practice in Milan and in 2023 it hired partner Augusto Santoro with a four-strong team from Simmons & Simmons to establish a private equity and ECM practice in Italy.
The team’s hire comes as international law firms increasingly look to Italy, particularly Milan, amid a boom in private equity and M&A deals and increased activity from foreign investors.
Last month Ropes & Gray opened its second European office in Milan with a PE trio hired from Latham & Watkins, while earlier this year Taylor Wessing announced a strategic alliance with 27-partner Italian firm Orsingher Ortu and Charles Russell Speechlys opened an office in Milan targeting ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
HSF Kramer’s hires have coincided with BonelliErede announcing it has recruited a trio of partners in Milan from Italian rival Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici. Corporate partner Maria Cristina Storchi has joined the firm alongside Andrea Novarese and Francesco Pirisi, who practice across banking and finance and restructuring and insolvency matters.
BonelliErede has seen a wave of team departures over the past few years, including a nine-lawyer, four-partner corporate M&A and litigation team that exited for Gatti Pavesi in July this year. Early last year, a 16-lawyer M&A and private equity team also left to join the newly-formed PedersoliGattai, while in 2023 a nine-lawyer M&A team moved to Chiomenti and an 18-person tax team shifted to Legance.
Going the other way, last year, 460-lawyer BonelliErede hired a large compliance and IP team from Orrick in February 2024, part of a major exodus from the US firm’s Italy practice that also saw a group join Hogan Lovells. Orrick replenished its ranks with the hire in May 2024 of a seven-lawyer M&A and PE team from legacy Shearman & Sterling.
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