Raffaele Giarda’s arrival further strengthens the Firm’s Technology, Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMT) practice, which will benefit from his extensive experience gained over more than three decades in sector-specific regulation, including matters relating to foreign direct investments in Italy (FDI).

The appointment of Raffaele Giarda is part of ADVANT Nctm’s ongoing strategy to further enhance its professional capabilities in support of clients, reinforcing the Firm’s TMT expertise at a time when innovation and digital transformation represent key drivers for businesses and their growth.

“Raffaele Giarda’s arrival is a source of great pride for us. He is a highly regarded professional with a strong reputation built over decades of experience, including internationally, in the TMT sector and in advising on complex transactions. His experience further enhances our offering in this area while strengthening the Firm’s ability to support clients in a rapidly evolving and constantly changing market environment”, commented Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm.

“Joining ADVANT Nctm represents a new and important stage in my professional journey, within a Firm that combines a European dimension, the quality of its professionals and a clear vision for growth. I bring with me extensive experience in the TMT sector, with the aim of contributing from the outset to the further strengthening of the Firm’s position in its market”, said Raffaele Giarda.

Following Raffaele Giarda’s arrival, ADVANT Nctm’s total number of Partners reaches 88.

Joining ADVANT Nctm alongside Fantacchiotti are Anna Gagliardi, counsel, and Pietro Pozzati, managing associate, professionals with expertise in domestic and cross-border M&A and private equity who have already worked side by side with him on recent transactions. This cohesive, immediately operational addition structurally strengthens the firm’s ability to assist leading clients in the most complex transactions.

The arrival of Fantacchiotti and his team further consolidates and strengthens a practice that now includes more than 40 of the most influential professionals in the legal landscape and which, in terms of size, quality and track record, ranks among the leading firms in the Italian market. 

The group includes some of the professionals most highly recognised also by the leading international legal directories, confirming the firm’s position as one the most prominent advisors in national private equity, M&A and alternative investments. 

Fantacchiotti’s arrival is a significant indication of the firm’s direction and forms part of ADVANT Nctm’s long-term growth strategy: to strengthen its capabilities and reputation on the international stage, consolidate its leadership in private equity, and further establish itself as a trusted adviser to leading Italian and international financial operators.

“Giorgio Fantacchiotti’s arrival marks a significant milestone for ADVANT Nctm. Giorgio is one of the most respected figures in Italian M&A: he has built his career at the highest levels of international business law, boasts an exceptional track record and maintains a network of top-tier relationships. The team joining with him has already demonstrated its ability to work with the same vision and the same high standards. With his arrival, our M&A and private equity practice — already recognised among the market leaders — takes another step forward in quality, strengthening a team that stands out in Italy in terms of depth, experience, and recognition”, said Paolo Montironi, senior partner at ADVANT Nctm.

“Joining ADVANT Nctm means becoming part of a firm with a professional culture that strongly resonates with me and a reputation built over time. I will bring my experience in M&A with the ambition to make a tangible contribution to the practice’s growth, focusing on international expansion, private equity and strengthening relationships with key market players”, said Giorgio Fantacchiotti. 

Following this appointment, ADVANT Nctm now has 87 partners.

Marco Cosa has extensive experience in corporate and commercial law, with a focus on extraordinary transactions, day-to-day corporate advisory work, and corporate governance matters. He also regularly advises domestic and international clients on the negotiation of complex commercial agreements and the implementation of strategic projects, particularly in the digital and technology, heavy industry, food and beverage, fashion, and retail sectors.

Francesco Mazzocchi specialises in European Union and Italian competition law, assisting companies in proceedings before the European Commission and the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM). His practice covers, among other areas, state aid, merger control, antitrust litigation, cartels and abuse of dominance, unfair commercial practices, and Italy’s Golden Power regime on foreign direct investment screening.

“The promotion of Marco Cosa and Francesco Mazzocchi recognises two professionals careers built with rigour and dedication within the firm and reflects our commitment to valuing internal talent that contributes every day to our clients’ success and to the growth of ADVANT Nctm. Investing in people and their skills remains a cornerstone of our strategy to deliver high-quality legal services”, commented Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm.

Following these appointments, the firm’s partnership increases to 86 partners.

As a professional with over twenty years’ experience gained at leading national and international firms, Antonio La Porta boasts solid and recognised expertise in special and structured finance, with a particular focus on securitisations, covered bonds and NPL transactions, as well as in private debt, acquisition finance and the debt capital market. 

Alongside Antonio La Porta, Francesca Spadafora is also joining the firm as a managing associate. She specialises in banking and finance law, with expertise in debt capital market, corporate finance and acquisition finance.

This move is a sign of the further strengthening of ADVANT Nctm’s Banking & Finance practice, a process that began at the start of the year with Federico Morelli joining the partnership, and confirms the firm’s strategy of building a highly specialised team capable of identifying key market trends in a timely manner in order to offer increasingly focused and dedicated advice.   

“The entry of Antonio La Porta marks a further step in the strenghtening of our Banking & Finance practice. Following the recent joining of Federico Morelli, we are continuing to bolster our team by recruiting professionals with distinctive skills who can bring significant added value. This investment enables us to further enhance the quality of the support we give our clients in a constantly evolving market”, commented Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner of ADVANT Nctm.

“Joining ADVANT Nctm is a particularly exciting opportunity for me, in an area – Banking & Finance – that is already well-established and recognised in the market. I will bring to the firm my experience in corporate finance and structured finance, with the aim of further contributing to the development of the practice by leveraging four elements that I consider central: specialist expertise, strategic vision, teamwork and the ability to build solid and lasting market relationships”, said Antonio La Porta.

With the joining of Antonio La Porta, the total number of Partners at ADVANT Nctm rises to 85.

Raffaella Quintana is a partner and Head of White-Collar Crime, Investigation and Compliance at ADVANT Nctm. More than 35 years ago, when she built the first criminal law team inside a large Italian multi-practice firm, she had to make two arguments simultaneously: the legal one and the cultural one. The legal argument was technical. The cultural argument was harder, persuading partners and clients that business criminal law was not a niche for handling emergencies but a fundamental governance discipline, one that belongs in the room where strategy is made, not called in after the damage is done. That argument is now settled. What she continues to build is the architecture around it.

Read the full interview on Leaders League website

ADVANT Nctm takes a further step in strengthening its expertise with the appointment of Luigi Ardizzone and Francesco Follieri, both previously Of Counsel and members of the Scientific Committee, as Partners. 

Luigi Ardizzone serves as a Full Professor of Commercial Law at the Department of Law at the University of Brescia. His expertise lies primarily in corporate law and financial markets, encompassing both litigation and M&A transactions.

Francesco Follieri serves as a Full Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Legal Sciences of LUM “Giuseppe Degennaro.” He has extensive experience in both court and out-of-court matters across multiple areas of administrative law, including contracts and public services, healthcare, infrastructure, urban planning and construction, publicly-owned companies, energy, environment, cultural heritage, and public financial liability.

The appointment of Luigi Ardizzone and  Francesco Follieri as Partners reflects ADVANT Nctm’s long-term vision, which considers the synergy between professional practice and academic work as a distinctive element of the Firm’s identity. 

Such approach is expressed both at a technical level —through its Scientific Committee, composed of leading university professors from Italy’s top universities—and through ongoing internal and external training initiatives such as the awarding of scholarships and graduation prizes to university students, following a path aimed at contributing to the growth of new generations and the continuous enrichment of the Firm’s knowledge base. 

“The inclusion of Luigi Ardizzone and Francesco Follieri in our partnership marks an important step forward, consistent with our growth path and with the attention we have always devoted to the academic world as a key reference point for promoting a scientific and rigorous approach to professional practice. Strengthening the relationship between academia and the profession means investing in the quality of our advisory services and in the future of our community, fostering a paradigm that allows us to stand out significantly in the market”, commented Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner of ADVANT Nctm.

“We are very pleased to contribute, also as Partners, to a project that concretely promotes the synergy between academic work and legal practice. We believe that the ongoing dialogue between scientific research and professional activity is a decisive factor in developing innovative solutions and fostering growth.”, commented Luigi Ardizzone and Francesco Follieri.

Morelli comes from CRCCD and has extensive experience in advising on debt capital markets transactions, both domestically and internationally, as well as on subordinated debt issues, company law and corporate governance.

The arrival of the new partner also sees Martina Baldi, managing associate, and Federica Alici Biondi, senior associate with expertise in equity capital markets (ECM), join ADVANT Nctm. 

Morelli’s entry also responds to the new market trend involving an increasingly widespread use of Italian law to regulate bond issues, with a consequent repatriation of bonds from Italian issuers.

As part of this development strategy, the firm also announces the entry, as counsel, of Gaetano Petroni, a professional who, in addition to dealing with real estate finance, has solid experience in high-yield instrument issues.

“The arrival of Federico Morelli – comments Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm – confirms the firm’s desire to continue along a path of strengthening through the addition of professionals with distinctive experience and strong development skills. This enables us to further enhance the quality of the assistance we provide to our clients and to make our service offering increasingly comprehensive and responsive to changes in the economic environment. It is through this type of investment that we continue to evolve our advisory model, putting our expertise, vision and innovation at the service of our clients’ challenges.”

As a professional with an extensive track record in the telecommunications and ICT sector, Antonio Corda has gained significant experience in national and international contexts, holding executive positions in legal, compliance, privacy, regulatory affairs and security in companies in the ITC and telecommunications sectors: most recently, Chief Legal, Compliance & Security Officer at Fastweb+Vodafone.

In his new role, Antonio will work with ADVANT Nctm teams involved in M&A transactions and commercial projects in the telecommunications and ICT sector, both in the retail and infrastructure segments. 
Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm, said: “We are delighted to welcome Antonio to our firm. His expertise in the TMT sector and in compliance and cybersecurity is a valuable asset for the assistance we offer to our clients in highly technological and regulatory transactions”.

"Joining ADVANT Nctm”, Corda added, “is an opportunity for me to contribute my experience in a multidisciplinary and international context, helping to develop strategic projects in the telecommunications and ICT sector”.

With this new entry, ADVANT Nctm confirms its commitment to providing specialist expertise in sectors marked by strong technological innovation, with a particular focus on regulatory, compliance, privacy and security issues.

The new structure will focus on the design of the Tax Control Framework and on advising on the adoption of organisational models that facilitate transparent and collaborative dialogue with tax authorities, assisting in particular businesses through all stages of the process of joining and managing the Cooperative Compliance regime. The launch of such practice area places ADVANT Nctm among the first Italian law firms to have a team dedicated to Cooperative Compliance, allowing businesses to benefit from the scheme as early as the 2026 financial year.

A professional with over 20 years of proven experience in the tax field - gained in leading industrial and fashion companies and strenghtened  at Accenture as Managing Director Tax for Southern & Central Europe & Middle East for more than fifteen years, Luca La Barbera has developed leading expertise in the creation and implementation of tax control frameworks (TCFs) and in the Cooperative Compliance admission and management process, helping to define standards that are now benchmarks for Italian and international businesses.

The Cooperative Compliance regime is set to play a central role in the coming years and represents one of the most promising areas for Italian tax law, renewing and innovating the relationship between tax authorities and businesses according to the principles of transparency and mutual trust and promoting preventive and shared tax risk management. The prospects for the development of the scheme are particularly significant thanks to the gradual reduction of the access threshold, which will be €500 million in turnover from 2026 and €100 million from 2028, significantly increasing the number of eligible businesses.

The entry of Luca La Barbera and the creation of the new business area strenghten ADVANT Nctm’s growth strategy, achieved through the aggregation of boutiques or teams of highly specialised professionals in complementary and synergistic fields. Over the last year, the firm has sped up this process with significant transactions involving regulatory, corporate criminal and labour law, which also led to the creation of dedicated practice areas.

Today, with Luca La Barbera and the launch of the practice area dedicated to Cooperative Compliance, such strategic development approach, including lateral hires, extends to the tax department (currently comprising around 30 professionals), an area experiencing strong growth and increasingly crucial in the field of client advisory services. 

“The arrival of Luca La Barbera is further confirmation of our targeted growth strategy, based on attracting professionals or firms with highly distinctive skills and high development potential. Such approach allows us not only to continue investing in talents and specialisations capable of bringing immediate and long-term value, but also to constantly expand our range of services and anticipate the needs of a rapidly evolving market, focusing on innovation and high-quality advice to respond effectively to the businesses’ challenges” said Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm.

“I am particularly proud to join ADVANT Nctm, a firm that has proven its ability to grow with vision, investing in areas with great prospects. Collaborative compliance is set to become a pillar of the Italian tax system, and I believe that our work can make a real contribution to spreading tax risk management models based on transparency and dialogue with the authorities, creating value for businesses and for the country. Being able to develop such project within a firm of the calibre of ADVANT Nctm is a strong incentive for me to contribute concretely to the growth and strengthening of the firm in the long term,” said Luca La Barbera.

With Luca La Barbera joining the firm, the total number of partners at ADVANT Nctm rises to 85.

This move is part of a strategic plan to strengthen the Labour department, which started a few months ago with the arrival of lawyer Patrizio Bernardo and his team. 

The new group will be based in Rome, ensuring better coverage of the area and an increasingly structured service that is closer to local clients.

ADVANT Nctm welcomes Enrico Boursier Niutta, Partner, and a team composed of Carlo Boursier Niutta (Of Counsel), an authoritative figure in the field, and Patrizio Maria Raimondi (Of Counsel), Antonio Armentano (Counsel), Paolo Angeli, Antonio La Bella and Mattia Grupposo (Advisors), Rosalina Panetta (Senior Associate) and Giulia Clementi (Associate), as well as two staff members.

As a result of the addition of Studio Boursier Niutta & Partners, ADVANT Nctm's Labour Department strengthens its position among the leading players in the sector, achieving a size and level of expertise among the most significant in the market, with 37 professionals. 

Enrico Boursier Niutta has significant experience in assisting domestic and international clients in the field of labour and trade union law and provides advice and assistance to companies in all areas of labour law, with particular focus on the following matters: corporate restructuring, incentive plans for executives, MBOs and fringe benefits, individual and collective dismissals, transfers of businesses, industrial relations and agency agreements.

Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner at ADVANT Nctm, comments: “We are thrilled to have reached this important deal with Enrico, Carlo, and their team. ADVANT Nctm keeps proving itself as an attractive place for boutique firms and well-known professionals, thanks to the quality of its organisation and a modern and transparent partnership model that values their skills while keeping their identity, offering at the same time the perfect space for growing business projects and professional relationships, as demonstrated by the recent additions of Studio Berlingieri (shipping, 2023) and Studio Zitiello (regulatory, 2024)”.

The total number of ADVANT Nctm partners now rises to 84.

With the arrival of Patrizio Bernardo and his team, which includes Claudia Schmiedt (senior associate), Francesca Retus (associate), two trainees (Sara Salmeri and Emiliano Ferrari) and one staff member (Angelica Tamburrano), the practice is further enhanced, reaching a total of 28 professionals.

Patrizio Bernardo has a solid experience in labour law, both at national and international level, assisting medium and large-sized companies in all matters relating to the management of employment relationships, both in and out of court, including, in particular, the drafting of employment contracts for managers and post-contractual non-compete agreements, remuneration policies, health and safety at work, individual and collective dismissals, management of social shock absorbers, industrial relations and negotiation of collective agreements.

"With his expertise, Patrizio Bernardo will further contribute to the strengthening of ADVANT Nctm's position as a reference point in the field of labour law. We are excited to welcome him and his team and are certain that this collaboration will bring further added value to both our firm and our clients, while contributing to ADVANT Nctm's continued growth" commented Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner of ADVANT Nctm. 

With Patrizio Bernardo, the total number of ADVANT Nctm partners rises to 79.

Lorenzo Freddi brings with him a 16-year experience gained at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where he developed strong expertise in M&A and private equity. 

Throughout his career, he has assisted industrial clients and investment funds, both Italian and international, in a wide range of M&A transactions, joint ventures and partnerships. His professional background also includes an established expertise in commercial and technology contracts. 

With his experience and skills, Lorenzo Freddi will make a significant contribution to the needs of ADVANT Nctm’s clients in the most strategic and complex sectors. 

As a result of Lorenzo’s entry, ADVANT Nctm now has 78 partners.

Milan, 1 July 2024 – ADVANT Nctm, ADVANT’s Italian firm, through Senior Partner Paolo Montironi, is pleased to announce the joining of Studio Zitiello Associati, a boutique law firm founded in 2006 that brings together professionals with expertise in banking, finance and insurance.

At a strategic level, the transaction is part of ADVANT Nctm’s path of continuing growth, which will involve, upon the joining of Zitiello Associati, the creation of a specialised Regulatory department, leading the Firm to significantly strenghten its vertical expertise in the area of banking, insurance and financial markets law, with specific reference to regulatory advice to supervised entities and litigation.

ADVANT Nctm is joined by a group of 22 professionals, namely: an Honorary Partner/Of Counsel, Luca Zitiello; three Partners, Fabio Coco, Francesco Mocci and Benedetta Musco Carbonaro (bringing the total number of partners to 77); three Counsels – Ludovica D’Ostuni, Paolo Franceso Bruno and Lorenzo Macchia – and Rossella Mariani as Of Counsel – in addition to fourteen associates.

The new Regulatory department will include, in addition to Zitiello Associati’s team of professionals, Danilo Quattrocchi and Antonia Di Bella – who at ADVANT Nctm already deal with the regulatory compliance of entities operating in the banking, financial and insurance sectors – as well as the team of Emidio Cacciapuoti, operating in the asset management sector and assisting investment funds.

Paolo Montironi, Senior Partner of ADVANT Nctm, commented: “We are thrilled to have made this important agreement with our colleagues at Zitiello Associati. The creation of a dedicated Regulatory department is instrumental in taking full advantage of all the opportunities offered by the evolving reference sector, characterised by an ever-increasing concentration of clients, requiring an increasing range of services, and by continuous regulatory changes, which involve a proliferation of interpretative actions by European and national regulators. Such context calls for a single interlocutor across multiple jurisdictions and all-round assistance with specialised and cross-cutting skills: something that ADVANT Nctm, with the team of professionals from Zitiello Associati, will be able to provide to clients”.

Luca Zitiello, Managing Partner of Zitiello Associati, concluded: “Together with my partners, we are honoured to become part of the ADVANT Nctm family and look forward to sharing our important expertise in the field of banking, finance and insurance law, which has allowed us to achieve a distinctive and vertical position over the last twenty years in Italy. In a context like the current one, it is very important to always be able to find new opportunities for synergic growth and we are very happy to have been able to do so with a partner of the calibre of ADVANT Nctm”.

Emidio comes from the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery and has significant experience in structuring and constructing alternative investment funds, carried interest schemes and investment agreements. His experience also involves advising on international tax and financial issues.


Over the last ten years, Emidio has advised mainly Italian and international asset management companies and institutional investors. With his team, he provides highly skilled support covering both regulatory and tax aspects in the area of alternative investments in private equity, private debt, venture capital and real estate. 

The joining of Emidio Cacciapuoti, along with Counsels Giorgio Bobba, a lawyer specialising in regulatory matters, and Davide Massiglia, with several years’ experience in international tax and financial matters, further strengthens the offering of the firm's M&A and tax departments.

With this new entry ADVANT Nctm now has 70 partners. 

We warmly welcome Piero and his team.

1. ESG and sustainable finance
2. Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility
3. Labour and safety at work
4. Environmental, real estate and regulatory issues
5. Risk of environmental, climate and greenwashing litigation
6. Supply chain and sustainability

“We are proud of the firm's achievements in this first year of work on ESG, bolstered by ADVANT's mission whose main points are reducing the impact of our activities on the environment, the transparency of our path and supporting Clients in their ESG journey of “doing good while doing well" – said Paolo Montironi, Senior partner at ADVANT Nctm – “The ESG Focus Group was inspired by the need to establish the fundamental principles to be applied within the firm and set a code of conduct and policies for the environment, diversity and inclusion as well as for sustainable procurement management. We developed a procedure for the timely assessment of our environmental impact with the calculation of our carbon footprint in order to reduce our emissions and achieve carbon neutrality over time.”“We have endowed ourselves with an ESG risk management system by creating committees with ad hoc expertise and introducing a whistleblowing policy”, added ADVANT Board member Vittorio Noseda. “We also held an intensive internal training programme on ESG issues: the training of our professionals on such topics is crucial in order to be able to best assist our clients."

Camilla Alberti, Fabrizio Bellomo, Francesco Bertocco, Rossella Biscotti, Raffaella Crispino, Effe Minelli,Riccardo Giacconi, Rachele Maistrello, Francesca Marconi, Elena Mazzi, Raziel Perin, Marco Maria Zanin are the artists who have been awarded the acquisition prizes made available by nctm e l’arte with the Essenziale call for artists.The numerous submissions received in response to the Essenziale call for artists were assessed by an evaluation committee composed of Matteo Lucchetti, Visible project curator (Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto/Fondazione Zegna) and independent curator, Adrian Paci, artist and Gabi Scardi, art director of nctm e l’arte.Evaluation sessions were attended by the members of Nctm Next Generation Art Committee.

Altana, Beiten Burkhardt e Nctm fondano una nuova associazione europea tra studi legali