Latham & Watkins has lost a team of six finance lawyers from its Milan office, including banking and finance group chair Riccardo Agostinelli, to Italian boutique Gattai Minoli & Partners.

Agostinelli was Ashurst's managing partner in Milan before he joined Latham in 2009. He will be followed to Gattai by partner Lorenzo Vernetti, counsel Marco Leonardi, who will become junior partner, and associates Andrea Taurozzi, Daniele Migliarucci and Marta Pradella.

Agostinelli will also become a named partner at his new firm, which will be known as Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners on his arrival.

The departures will leave the Milan office with 38 lawyers, including eight partners, 23 associates and seven counsel.

Founded in November 2012, Gattai specialises in corporate, M&A, banking and finance, restructuring, real estate and dispute resolution work.

Following the hires, the firm's headcount will increase to 48 lawyers, 15 of whom are partners. The latest hires take the firm's finance department up to 10 lawyers, including four partners.

Bruno Gattai, the firm's founding partner said: "Despite being on the market for less than two years, our firm aims to be market leader in three areas of the law: corporate, finance and litigation. Today we see ourselves as a point of reference in corporate and finance law in Italy, for both national and international clients."

Agostinelli and Vernetii have stayed as a pair since jumping ship from Ashurst to Latham together in 2009. 

Latham had first launched its Italian law practice two years earlier after hiring a five-partner team from Slaughter and May's Italian ally Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, at the same time establishing an office in Rome to add to its Milan base, which has been running since 2002.

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