Watson Farley & Williams has bulked up its Milan office with the hire of Clifford Chance's (CC's) local head of public law, Cristina Martorana.

Martorana will join Watson Farley in the coming weeks. She has been a partner at the magic circle firm since 2007 after joining in 2002, while she also previously worked at Baker & McKenzie.

The hire takes the total number of partners in Watson Farley's Italy arm to six, including three in Milan.

News of the hire comes after the shipping firm hired Hogan Lovells' Italy head of banking Francesco Curreli and senior associate Francesco Dialti at the start of last year.

Watson Farley launched in Milan in May 2008 with a focus on the energy, shipping, transport and telecommunications sectors.

CC has seen a number of partner departures in the country in recent years and in 2010 opted to sub-let one of its floors in Milan to a client, understood to be Goldman Sachs.

Separately, Watson Farley announced plans to launch in Hong Kong last week, with the hire of Goodwin Procter corporate and capital markets partner Loretta Lau.

She will be joined in the firm's Hong Kong office by Madeline Leong, an asset finance partner relocating from Watson Farley's Singapore base.