McDermott Will & Emery announced today that Marco Cerritelli has joined the Firm's Energy Advisory Practice Group as a partner, based in Rome. Before joining McDermott, he was a partner at a leading independent Italian firm, where he established and headed an award winning project and asset finance practice.

A finance lawyer specialising in large energy and infrastructure projects and public private partnerships (PPP), Marco represents the full range of Italian infrastructure market participants, including construction companies, equity investors, financing parties, governmental entities and municipalities.

Earlier in his career, Marco spent more than 10 years in-house in senior legal positions at leading Italian banks. He also headed the legal departments of two leading Italian investment banks focused on public finance and infrastructure.

Most recently, Marco advised the Municipality of Milan in the project financing of the € 3.1 billion new metro lines 4 and 5 of the local underground. Earlier this summer, Marco and his team worked on a combined project-bond project-loan transaction for the Garbagnate Milanese Hospital. This transaction was the first of its kind in the Italian healthcare sector and it comprised an innovative debt package which merged features of a banking facility with those of a bond issue.

The team (which also includes senior associate Valentina Perrone) is now involved in several infrastructure related projects, including advising the regions of Emilia Romagna, Marche and Umbria on motorway project financing transactions.

Blake H. Winburne, global head of McDermott's Energy Advisory practice, said:

"Marco is one of Italy's top energy and infrastructure finance lawyers and we are delighted to welcome him to our team. We expect our European energy and infrastructure clients to immediately benefit from the opportunity to work with him. His experience arranging financing for large-scale energy projects and private-public partnerships will be particularly valuable."

Marco has worked on a number of and "firsts" in the Italian market, including:• The first ever multi-asset project financing deal;• The first ever PPP social housing project;• The first ever acquisition of highway concessionaire by Italian construction companies;• The first ever highway project financing using a bullet repayment scheme based on the termination amount of the concession;• The first ever project bond transactions in the healthcare and public transportation sectors.Massimo Trentino, partner-in-charge of McDermott's Rome office, said:

"Marco's unique experience matches closely with a number of emerging opportunities in the Italian renewable energy and infrastructure sectors. He also brings sophisticated banking and financing experience that will be highly valuable to our clients, both in terms of his substantive skill set, as well as his ability to connect various leading players in the Italian legal market."

McDermott's Italian Energy and Infrastructure practice provides a broad range of services to domestic and international clients on all aspects of the energy and infrastructure sectors in Italy, Europe and the Middle East. The Firm represents developers, operators and suppliers, as well as private investors and funds, financial institutions, and international brokers and dealers. McDermott is also one of the top providers of legal services to participants in competitive energy trading markets.