New York, March 12, 2007 – LAWFUEL – Legal News Network – Dewey Ballantine LLP, a leading international law firm, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with the highly regarded Italian law firm, Galgano. The agreement will enable Dewey Ballantine to access the distinguished experience of the Galgano firm, headquartered in Bologna, and the assistance of Professor Francesco Galgano and Federico Galgano as special counsel. The deal will also see the incorporation of 20 lawyers from Galgano’s Milan office into Dewey Ballantine. The arrival of this group into Dewey’s Milan office, which opened in October 2003, will bring the total number of lawyers at the firm in Italy to over 60.
As a result of the agreement, Davide Contini, Marco Consonni and Alessandro Accinni will become partners of Dewey Ballantine. At Galgano, Contini was head of the banking, finance and capital markets practice, and his work covers banking, securitization, derivatives, and IPOs, as well as corporate law, project finance and litigation for clients in the financial sector. Consonni, who was head of the technology and communications practice, focuses on telecommunications, media, intellectual property and related matters, as well as corporate transactions and reorganizations. Accinni focuses on general company and corporate finance matters including company acquisitions, venture capital, takeovers and company and commercial litigation. They will be joined by two further local partners in the corporate department, Laura Ortali and Andrea Sgalla, as well as 15 associates.
Professor Francesco Galgano and Federico Galgano will offer Dewey Ballantine support in the fields of litigation and legal opinions, with a particular focus on complex corporate finance transactions. In turn, Galgano and its clients will be able to benefit from the support of Dewey Ballantine’s Italian complex deal capability and access to its international network.
Commenting on the agreement, Dewey Ballantine Managing Partner in Italy, Bruno Gattai, said, “This is a great arrangement for both parties. Dewey Ballantine adds lawyers in key areas, including partners of the highest quality, and, through the collaboration with Galgano, gains access to one of Italy’s leading legal thinkers, confirming the aim of Dewey Ballantine’s Italian practice to provide premium quality services to its clients. Additionally, this sends a signal of the firm’s desire to continue to grow in Europe, where we have seen great successes over recent months and years.”
Francesco Galgano, eponymous founder of Galgano, said of the arrangement, “We will be in a position to offer our clients a unique service, combining our traditional approach with the organization and platform of a leading international firm with an Italian practice that has rapidly gained a major reputation in the marketplace.”
Davide Contini, one of the new partners to join Dewey Ballantine’s Milan office as a result of the deal, added, “the opportunity to join forces with a firm with such a strong international reputation is compelling from my personal perspective and I am convinced that it will bring great benefits to my clients.”
About Dewey Ballantine
Dewey Ballantine LLP, is an international law firm with 550 lawyers located in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, East Palo Alto, Austin, London, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Beijing, was founded in 1909. Through its network of offices, the firm handles some of the largest, most complex corporate transactions, litigation and tax matters in areas such as M&A, private equity, project finance, corporate finance, corporate reorganization and bankruptcy, antitrust, intellectual property, sports law, structured finance and international trade. Industry specializations include energy and utilities, healthcare, insurance, financial services, media, consumer and industrial goods, consumer electronics, technology, telecommunications and transportation.
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About Dewey Ballantine, Italy
The firm’s practice in Italy began in October 2003, opening simultaneously in Milan and Rome headed by Bruno Gattai and Stefano Speroni respectively. The number of lawyers has continued to expand through the arrival of lawyers from major Italian firms, including Adriano Pala, Luca Dezzani, Gaetano Carrello and Emanuela Ciaffi .The practice regularly places near the top of quarterly and annual M&A league tables, both for deal value and volume, as the result of lead roles on some of Italy and Europe’s largest-ever transactions. Recent headline work includes advising Omnia network on its IPO, Weather Investments on the acquisition of Wind Telecomunicazioni (the largest ever LBO in Europe at the time), and Lottomatica on the acquisition of GTech Holdings to form the world’s largest lottery operator (the largest ever acquisition of a US company by an Italian company).
About Galgano
The Galgano law firm was founded in the 1970s by Prof. Francesco Galgano and currently has offices in Bologna and Milan. Francesco Galgano is Professor of Civil Law at the University of Bologna, and is renowned for his work in the field of civil and commercial law.
The firm is mainly active in the areas of commercial, contract, corporate and finance law, advising Italian and international clients including banks and institutional investors, government bodies and private individuals.
The firm is very strongly represented in academic circles. A number of partners teach in universities both in Italy and abroad, and are also regular speakers at conferences. They are also active in the drafting of new legislation.
