Sennhauser has been a partner at Freshfields since 2000 and has led its finance practice in
Sennhauser has acted on some of Freshfields’ top deals in the country, including advising Goldman Sachs Capital Partners on its €1.3bn (£864m) purchase of the Italian energy and telecom cables and systems business of Pirelli in 2005.
The hire comes as A&O moves to regain the initiative in the competitive Italian legal market after facing a number of senior departures, with the firm this summer transferring
Recent A&O departures include
The magic circle firm also parted company with its
One rival Italian finance partner commented: “A&O has always had a great finance platform, so that may well be the main motivation behind the move.”
He added: “Sennhauser is a decent lawyer and will add a lot to the A&O practice, but they have a long way to go before they can be considered as anywhere near market leaders. But it is a good start.”
A&O global head of banking Mike Duncan said: “
The Italian move comes against a backdrop of renewed foreign investment for A&O with the
