Seven New Partners at Bird & Bird

May may only be two weeks old, but it has already proven to be a very important month for Bird & Bird. In fact, in addition to the promotion of Domien Op de Beeck, the global law firm announced six other partner-promotions in its annual global promotion round.

Those promoted are:

• Afra Casiraghi – Commercial, Milan

A commercial, corporate and M&A specialist, Afra has a solid expertise in Italian civil and corporate law. She advises Italian and multinational clients from an array of industry sectors. She has been working for Bird & Bird since 2007.

• Claudia Ricciardi – Intellectual Property, Milan

An intellectual property counsel, she is active in the life science and healthcare sectors. She deals with patent agreements, but she also manages retail and consumer matters, as well as trademark issues. In situ for the opening of the Italian office in 2003.

• Federico Marini Balestra – Competition & EU, Rome

Federico is a new generation of lawyer and already has twenty years’ experience in Rome and Brussels. After 11 years at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Federico joined Bird & Bird in 2016. His main practice area is competition and EU law.

Graeme Maguire, Chair of Bird & Bird: "With the appointment of new partners come fresh ideas and different perspectives, so I look forward to working with each of them to achieve our unique ambition of being the number one law firm in the world for organisations being changed by technology and the digital world"

• Djazia Tiourtite– Dispute Resolution, Paris

Djazia takes a pragmatic approach to litigation, and is a specialist in French civil procedures. The legal cases she has handled up to now demonstrate her remarkable knowledge of all phases of  dispute resolution. She has assisted clients such as software editors, car makers.

• Domien Op de Beeck – Intellectual Property, Brussels

Op de Beeck has been with the firm since 2007 and specializes in IP law with a particular focus on patent, design and trade secrecy law. As a leading IP lawyer in Belgium, his sharp expertise in technical and scientific IP matters has been a real asset to the firm. He has represented Bird & Bird clients before courts and IP offices both in Belgium and internationally.

• Mark Rundall – Corporate, London

Mark has been an advisor at Bird & Bird for over twelve years. Thanks to his British academic background (Durham University), and good knowledge of both private and public companies, he is considered an excellent counsel in all matters related to corporate law.

• Rebecca O'Kelly-Gillard – Intellectual Property, London

After nine years split between McCann FitzGerald and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Rebecca joined Bird & Bird in 2012. She is a top lawyer in soft IP domains, which means that she is ably equipped to help clients in trademark and copyright issues which have a digital or online focus.

David Kerr, CEO of Bird & Bird: "Congratulations to Afra, Claudia, Djazia, Domien, Federico, Mark and Rebecca. Bird & Bird believes in the importance of encouraging and rewarding talent, and the appointment of seven sharp legal minds to our partnership sets the firm up for long term success and prosperity, despite the challenging circumstances we are all currently facing"

Bird & Bird has offices in 17 different countries. As the Leaders League rankings show, Bird & Bird is often mentioned as one of the top law firms in many sectors.

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Francesco Magon (@francesco_magon)