International law firm Simmons & Simmons is proud to announce that two partners were recognised at Italy’s prestigious TopLegal Awards 2020; Paola Leocani and Augusto Santoro.
TopLegal is a leading Italian benchmark publication, and its annual awards event honours excellence in the Italian legal market, with winners decided by a panel of 43 prominent business leaders.
In a landmark for these awards, Paola was recognised as Top Professional of the Year, the first woman to win this category. Augusto was recognised as Equity Capital Markets Professional of the Year, reflecting his performance in this space over the last year.
On Paola’s win, the TopLegal panel commented: “(Paola) has a high profile within the Finance world, where it is difficult to succeed”. The panel also referenced Paola’s prominence in relation to BTP Italia’s record issuance of over €22 billion as justification for her winning this award.
Paola welcomed her win, saying: “I am very pleased to receive this award and am extremely proud to be the first woman to receive this recognition from TopLegal.”
In explaining Augusto’s win, the panel said that it particularly recognised his ability to manage complex transactions involving multiple parties, such as his assistance to DHH in the reverse takeover of Seeweb Holding.
On receiving this award, Augusto said: “I am honoured to receive this prestigious award. I am grateful to my team and to our clients who gave us this opportunity, and I intend to continue leading the field in the equity capital markets space.”
Augusto’s recognition follows a successful year for the ECM Team, which was named Best Capital Markets Team of the Year at the 2020 Legalcommunity Forty Under 40 Awards and Best Equity Capital Markets Law Firm of the Year at the Legalcommunity Corporate Awards both in 2019 and in 2020.