Founded by twin brothers Percy and Edward in 1896, for many years Simmons & Simmons liked to think of itself as a mini-Linklaters. It had a similar client base of financial institutions allied to a technocratic, somewhat straight-backed, establishment culture. Growth and profitability have waxed and waned at the firm. In the early years of the century Simmons & Simmons was trying to ride the gathering boom, having come through a difficult period in the 1990s when US firms were
Founded by twin brothers Percy and Edward in 1896, for many years Simmons & Simmons liked to think of itself as a mini-Linklaters. It had a similar client base of financial institutions allied to a technocratic, somewhat straight-backed, establishment culture.
Growth and profitability have waxed and waned at the firm. In the early years of the century Simmons & Simmons was trying to ride the gathering boom, having come through a difficult period in the 1990s when US firms were hiring many of its partners.
The declarations came thick and fast. It would pursue a worldwide property expansion strategy, it was announced, with the hire of a Hong Kong partner. It acquired Portuguese and Dutch firms, and expanded in Japan through the first joint venture between English and Japanese law firms. It opened in Qatar and enjoyed success in India and Italy. In 2003 it even won a Queen’s Award for its “outstanding achievement in international trade.”
And yet alongside all the activity, profits fell three years in a row. Furthermore, its foray into Germany was spectacularly ill-judged. Desperate to do a deal at any price it took over Dusseldorf M&A boutique Kaiser in 2001. The merger and its attendant clearing up seared itself into the corporate memory of the firm; it might even have contributed to Simmons & Simmons’ subsequent timidity.
Times were tough. There was a period in 2004 when Simmons & Simmons was in the headlines on an almost weekly basis, succumbing to a raid here or undergoing a mass exodus there. On the graduate recruitment side the firm had a reputation on campus for being ‘cuddly’ – a nice sort of outfit on the fringes of the UK’s big 10 – the type of firm you would go to if you did not fancy the sharp edges of the magic circle. It was a reputation Simmons & Simmons played on to a certain extent, but it did not help woo the most ambitious students.
How did the management address the problems? By making a concerted effort not to be cuddly, for a start. It made redundancies, raised billing targets for associates to 1,700 hours, and de-equitised London partners. The firm finally voted through a change to partner compensation, introducing a floor that gave management a bigger bonus pool to placate star partners in bad years. (“David [Dickinson ex-senior partner] had a hard job to do, but he didn’t need to perform it like the grim reaper,” one ex-partner opined at the time.)
The first realisation that the firm was no longer in the top rank came with the accession to managing partner of Mark Dawkins in 2005. At that point the firm had not made it into the top 20 M&A deals table by value for three years straight. A practical solution was needed. The global partnership endorsed proposals to refocus Simmons & Simmons’ strategy along three lines: financial markets and institutions; energy, utilities and infrastructure; and technology and life sciences, threatening the future of several sector groups now deemed non-core. The private client group would leave in short order.
Under Dawkins profits bounced back, with the initial groundwork done under Dickinson acknowledged, if not exactly appreciated. By 2006 half the firm’s revenues were generated outside the UK. Dawkins was re-elected for a second term in 2008 and PEP hit £600,000 that year. It seemed that the firm had finally put its profitability woes firmly to bed. Unfortunately, then came the recession. International strategy went into reverse, with the firm closing in Rotterdam (moving all its Dutch lawyers to Amsterdam) and Portugal, and downsizing in Moscow. Profits started to fall again.
With the Dawkins era over the Jeremy Hoyland era began, a period that was characterised by a ferocious attention to sectors. Launches were more targeted, such as the Luxembourg opening focused on funds, while the firm also opened in Bristol.
The missing piece of the jigsaw? For years, senior Simmons & Simmons partners have quietly admitted they want or, rather, need a US merger.
| Managing partner | Senior partner | |
| 1999 | David Dickinson | |
| 2001 | Janet Gaymer | |
| 2005 | Mark Dawkins | |
| 2006 | David Dickinson | |
| 2011 | Jeremy Hoyland | Colin Passmore |
| 2021 | Julian Taylor |
