Simmons & Simmons

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Simmons & Simmons
Type	Partnership
Founded	London (1896)
Headquarters	London, with 20 other offices worldwide
Industry	Law
Products	Legal advice
Employees	over 2,000
Website	www.simmons-simmons.com

Simmons & Simmons is a large international law firm based in the City of London. Its main office is located in CityPoint, off Moorgate, where almost half its legal staff are based. It has 20 other offices throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and therefore considers itself a fully-global firm. It undertakes significant cross-border transactions alongside its more local work. The bulk of its revenues derive from the work done by its Corporate and Financial Markets departments, and it has particular experience working for finanical institutions and in the technology, life sciences and energy & utilities sectors.

The firm is mighty considered to punch above its weight compared to some of the behemoths that it seeks to rival, such as Clifford Chance and Freshfields. It competes on the grounds of quality and added value. Its work on the acquisition and immediate accelerated IPO of Northumbrian Water Group earned it the top M&A awards from both The Lawyer and Legal Week in 2004 for the ground-breaking use of its "virtual bidder" concept. Many more awards have followed.

Simmons & Simmons currently acts for a range of clients including Shell, Barclays, UBS, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and the British Government. In 2005 it acted for Telefonica on its £17.7bn acquisition of O2, the largest transaction in the telecoms sector since 2000.

Simmons & Simmons was the first law firm to offer free legal advice through an internet service, launching elexica in 1999. The service has won numerous legal awards, though the full database can only be accessed by clients of the firm.

The current senior partner is David Dickinson and the managing partner is Mark Dawkins.

The firm has spent 15 years building a collection of art from modern British artists. The offices in London are home to several works by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.