Taylor Wessing has announced a strategic alliance with Italian law firm Orsingher Ortu.

The 29-partner firm, which has 17 senior partners and 12 junior partners, has offices in Milan and Rome, employs over 100 lawyers, and services clients including Omega Pharma, Thought Machine, Innishboffin, and Banca Etica.  

The agreement boosts Taylor Wessing’s offering in key practice areas like corporate/M&A, which is the Italian firm’s most prominent department with 12 partners, IP and regulation, and disputes.

Italy, the fourth-largest European economy, offers client opportunities in core sectors including TMT,  life sciences and healthcare, private wealth and real estate, alongside infrastructure and energy.

Founded in 2007, Orsingher Ortu has grown from an IP, media and technology boutique into a full-service law firm, most recently adding a seven-lawyer Italian life sciences team led by Francesco Setti and Stefano Giberti in December 2024 from Franzosi Del Negro Setti.

The Italian firm had previously collaborated with CMS on shared deals and projects. 

Taylor Wessing’s global co-chair, Shane Gleghorn, hailed Taylor Wessing’s “exciting partnership” with the firm, which he said was based on shared long-term commitments to clients across Europe and beyond, while his German counterpart, Oliver Bertram, said the firm looked forward to developing their respective client relationships while fostering strong bilateral connections.

Orsingher Ortu's managing partner, Matteo Orsingher, said: "We are honoured that Taylor Wessing has chosen us as its partner for Italy: this confirms our positioning in strategic areas and industrial fields of great importance and offers us new growth opportunities.”

The alliance marks a trend for Taylor Wessing to expand its reach substantially, rather than incrementally. It hired an 11-lawyer London private client team from BCLP in 2021, alongside a ten-lawyer team in Poland from Deloitte Legal that same year. 

In 2023 it hired partners from Addleshaw Goddard and DWF in Dublin and added disputes partner Ryan Ferry from Arthur Cox a year later.

Earlier this month it also announced a “strategic realignment” in China, opening a new office in the high-tech centre of Shenzhen, making Shanghai its main base of operations, while closing its Beijing office and transferring work to the Tailun IP Agency.

Recent departures include those of emerging companies and venture capital partner Angus Miln to Cooley in London last September and disputes partner Laurence Lieberman to Pillsbury in November.