Bird & Bird has hired a seven-lawyer finance team in Italy from Hogan Lovells. 

The team is led by partners Federico Del Monte and Corrado Fiscale, who have joined in Milan alongside five associates. Del Monte and Fiscale have worked together for more than 25 years and bring extensive experience in banking and finance, with particular expertise in structured finance. 

The team’s move to Bird & Bird follows Hogan Lovells hiring a 23-lawyer finance and M&A team across Milan and Rome in February from Orrick. The team was led by senior finance partner Patrizio Messina, who had co-founded Orrick’s Italy practice and at Hogan Lovells succeeded Luca Picone as managing partner for Italy. 

Bird & Bird said the hire of Del Monte and Fiscale was a “key part” of the firm’s plan to expand its finance offering.

“Our international finance and financial regulation practice is undergoing significant growth,” said practice co-heads Joss Hargrave, Michael Jünemann and Giuseppe D’Agostino. “As the finance sector continues to evolve at a rapid pace and becomes increasingly digital, Federico and Corrado’s expertise in the securitisation market and track record in handling complex financing transactions, combined with Bird & Bird’s leading position in digitalisation of the financial markets and crypto securities, will bolster our offering for the benefit of our clients.”

Del Monte and Fiscale worked together at Clifford Chance and Simmons & Simmons before joining Hogan Lovells in 2009. Del Monte is ranked among the best Italian lawyers for debt capital markets and securitisation by all the main legal directories and at Hogan Lovells worked with clients including Santander and UniCredit Bank. He also assisted DBRS Ratings with the assessment of a number of securitisations and the assignment of the relevant credit ratings.

Meantime Fiscale, who co-headed Hogan Lovells’ Italian debt capital markets team, specialises in structuring and negotiating debt securities, with particular focus on structured finance products and finance transactions. At Hogan Lovells his work included advising Citigroup subsidiary Citicorp as representative of the noteholder in connection with the restructuring of various Italian structured finance transactions. 

A Hogan Lovells spokesperson commented: "We thank Federico and Corrado for their contributions to the firm and we wish them well."

The team’s hire will take Bird & Bird’s Italy finance practice to north of 30 lawyers. The firm has been adding partners to the practice elsewhere in Europe, hiring Fernando Gutiérrez Rizaldos in Madrid from Dentons last September, around the same time Piotr Lesinski joined in Warsaw from Allen & Overy. 

Orrick also saw the other co-founder of its Italian practice, Alessandro De Nicola, defect to Italian heavyweight BonelliErede earlier this year with a large compliance and IP team.

The US firm moved to restock its bench in May with the hire of the former head of Shearman & Sterling’s Italian M&A practice, Fabio Fauceglia, and his team of six lawyers in Milan.