Global law firm Dentons has hired partner Gianpaolo Garofalo to establish the firm’s Italian Desk in London, and lead the Structured Finance group within the Banking and Finance practice in Italy.  Garofalo (pictured), joins from Italian law firm BonelliErede, where he worked for the past two years in the London office. Prior to that, he worked at Allen & Overy in Rome. He has more than 15 years’ experience in banking and finance, with a particular focus on structured finance. He assists national and international clients in securitisation, factoring and repackaging transactions. He has solid experience in derivatives, liability management

Investec Specialist Bank (Investec) has appointed Galina Markova to its Corporate & Acquisition Finance team, which is responsible for the origination and structuring of leveraged finance and private debt solutions for mid-market corporates and private equity clients across Europe. Based in the team’s London office, Markova will play a key role in driving growth from both the client base as well as from new strategic initiatives, which includes tapping into the strong institutional demand for private debt assets.          Markova joins from SMBC where she was an Executive Director in their European Leveraged Finance team. Prior to this, she was

Kreston Reeves has strengthened its Corporate Finance practice through a merger with Surrey-based corporate finance boutique SamCorp, and the appointment of Jack Clipsham as Corporate Finance Partner. SamCorp directors Peter Samuels and Darren Hurdle will move into the Gatwick office of Kreston Reeves and trade as Kreston Reeves. Established in 1998 as Samuels Corporate, SamCorp is a specialist corporate finance and strategic consultancy offering tailored advice to shareholders, directors and managers across a broad range of sectors. It has been behind some of the highest profile company sales and acquisitions in the South East over the past two decades. Samuels

Sarah Zeng has joined Orrick’s M&A and private equity practice, resident in Beijing. Zeng has over 25 years of corporate law experience serving Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and US multinational companies, and most recently served as Managing Partner of Denton’s Beijing office. Prior to that, Zeng was General Counsel of Hong Kong-listed Weichai Power, China’s largest engine manufacturer, and Vice President and Country Manager (China) for El Paso Corporation, a Fortune 500 energy company, where she chaired the boards of four major power plants owned by the company in China.   Zeng is the 18th partner to join Orrick’s Global

Cédric Lalain has joined Artemid as a Partner. Since 2017, Lalain worked as Head of Fixed Income at Assurances Crédit Mutuel and now joins the team which advises funds from the Artemid range. These funds provide senior financing solutions, with maturities between five and seven years to European SME and mid-cap companies, both listed and unlisted.    “In view of the growth of our business and the success of our last fundraising, we are delighted to welcome Cédric Lalain, who will bring the expertise he has accumulated within the Caisse des Dépôts Group and the Crédit Mutuel Group,” says Annie-Laure

Former partner David Lynn is rejoining Morrison & Foerster’s Corporate Department and Corporate Finance group and will be based in the Washington DC office. Lynn, a specialist in securities, corporate governance and public company counselling, previously served as the Chief Counsel of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance. At the SEC, Lynn led the SEC’s efforts to implement and interpret the rules adopted by the SEC following passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Lynn also led the SEC’s rulemaking team that drafted amendments to the SEC’s executive compensation and related party disclosure rules in 2006.