Contacts: 
Michael Bosco & Robert Ellison, Partners, Rome: (+39 06 697 6791)   
Domenico Fanuele, Associate, Rome: (+39 06 697 679 210)
Kate Sinclair, Media & Marketing, London: (+44 20 7655 5986)

Rome, 1st December 2005 – Domenico Fanuele was named Assistant of the Year at the Legal Week Awards held last night in London. Domenico, who is based in Shearman & Sterling’s fast-growing Rome office, won the award largely on the strength of his work earlier this year on Allianz AG’s landmark €5.7 billion takeover of Italian insurance group RAS -- Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà S.p.A., the second-largest insurance group in Italy.  Shearman & Sterling advised on both the German and Italian law aspects of the deal with Fanuele acting as the senior Italian-qualified lawyer on the team.

Legal Week presented Fanuele with the award at a ceremony in London’s Billingsgate Market, noting that, “When you are the most senior locally-qualified lawyer in Shearman & Sterling’s deal-driven European network there is, quite simply, nowhere to hide”, and that Fanuele is viewed as “a star who keeps his cool under enormous pressure and is perfectly positioned to become one of Italy’s top corporate lawyers.”

Partner Rob Ellison commented, “Domenico is a truly talented and dynamic lawyer and a key member of our team in Rome. We are delighted that he has received this recognition, and sure that his career will continue to go from strength to strength.”

The Rome office has had a breakthrough year, more than doubling in size to 18 lawyers and acting on numerous high profile matters. In addition to the Allianz deal, in 2005 the Rome office has also advised the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance on the US and, for the first time, Italian law issues in Alitalia's €1 billion capital increase and privatization, the underwriters in the €4.1 billion fourth tranche of the privatization of Enel S.p.A., the underwriters in Toro Assicurazioni S.p.A.'s €706 million IPO, the Prada Group in its major dual currency credit facility and Siemens AG in the Italian aspects of its acquisition of VA Tech.