Mario P Lisanti

Practice Areas

Banking and Finance

Private Credit

Restructuring and Insolvency

Real Estate

Career

Mario Lisanti is a partner at LMS Studio Legale and he is based in the Milan office. He is a member and the head of the firm’s banking and finance department.

Mario has more than 25 years’ experience in advising lenders (including banks and private debt funds) and borrowers (including private equity funds, real estate funds, and companies) on a wide range of banking and finance transactions, including acquisition and leverage finance, real estate finance, and corporate loans, as well as on special situations, debt restructuring and distressed debt trading. Over the last 10 years, Mario has gained special expertise in the private credit field by advising domestic and international asset managers and investors on specific investments with an Italian element (including in the form of Unitranche notes or loans, Holdco/PIK financing, Securitisation/SPV lending, or via USPP/private placement structures), on the structuring, establishment and financing of credit funds focused on the Italian market, as well as on Italian regulatory matters.

Since 2008, Mario has consistently been ranked among Italy’s leading banking lawyers by all major international directories, including Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. During his career, he has won several prestigious industry awards, including “Private Debt Lawyer of the Year” (2019), “Leverage Finance Lawyer of the Year” (2022) and “Real Estate Finance Lawyer of the Year” (2024), all given by a jury of senior finance experts selected by LegalCommunity, a leading media player in the Italian legal industry.

Mario is currently Chair of the Credit Committee of Assoimmobiliare (Italy’s leading industry association in the real estate sector) and a member of the Tax & Legal Committee of AIFI (Italy’s leading industry association in the private equity, venture capital and private debt sectors). He has published widely on corporate and banking matters, and he regularly attends as a speaker major domestic or international conferences and seminars on finance or legal matters.

Before joining LMS Studio Legale in May 2025, Mario was a partner and head of the Italian banking team at a leading international law firm for 8 years, based in the Milan office. Previously, he was a banking partner at the Milan office of another leading international law firm for 11 years, and, prior to that, he spent almost 5 years as an associate in the banking department of a Magic Circle firm in their London and Milan offices, and 2 years as an associate in the Milan office of a leading Italian independent law firm.

Professional Memberships

Italian Bar, 1998

Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, 2003

Languages Spoken

Italian

English