Legal Business

The generation game – Linklaters makes Italian corporate play with veteran rainmaker Casati

It is well known that Italian law firms owe much of their fortunes to a small group of veteran rainmakers when it comes to M&A work. In a market still dominated by elder statesmen and their decades-long connections with the country’s top corporates, 69-year-old Roberto Casati leaving Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to join Linklaters is one of the most significant lateral moves in the country for years.

In a bid by the international giant to expand beyond its finance and capital markets focus into mainstream corporate, Linklaters drafted a waiver to its partnership terms to allow Casati to join the firm at the top of its equity ladder, a deal worth around £2m annually.