Simmons & Simmons has begun the process of electing a new managing partner, with the firm confirming that it expects to choose a successor to longstanding leader Jeremy Hoyland in March. The successful candidate will take up the post when Hoyland steps down at the end of April.
Five Simmons partners are understood to be in contention for the upcoming election, with four based in London and one in Paris. All five are practice heads.
The London-based contenders are Emily Monastiriotis, international head of dispute resolution, who has been with the firm since 2017; Mahrie Webb, international head of financial markets, who joined in 2014; Alexander Brown, head of the TMT sector, who has been with the firm since 1997; and Darren Oswick, head of the UK and international tax practices, who joined the firm as a trainee in 1999. Representing the Paris office is Alexandre Regniault, head of the firm’s healthcare and life sciences sector group, who has been with Simmons since 2002.
The election marks the end of an era for Simmons, with Hoyland having been in post since May 2011, after winning a contested election against the firm’s Germany chief Hans-Hermann Aldenhoff.
Hoyland replaced Mark Dawkins when he stepped into the managing partner role at an uncertain period for the firm. At that point, Simmons’ financial results were in decline and it had held aborted discussions about a merger with US firm Mayer Brown in 2010.
He has been re-elected three times, with his term extended by a final two years in 2022.
Hoyland leaves the firm in a stable position after Simmons posted a 10% hike in revenue to £574m and a 7% rise in PEP to £1.076m for 2023-24. Between 2019 and 2024 the firm’s revenue increased by 53% from £374.4m, while PEP climbed by a similar percentage up from £710,000.
Under his tenure the firm has focused on four key sectors: asset management and investment funds, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, and TMT. It has also opened offices in Beijing in 2011, Bristol in 2012, Singapore and Munich in 2013, Luxembourg in 2015, Dublin in 2018, Silicon Valley in 2022—the firm’s first US office— and announced the opening of an office in Riyadh which is set to open this year.
‘He will be missed,’ a former partner tells Legal Business, ‘He has been a great managing partner.’
A Simmons spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that the process of finding the firm’s next managing partner has started. We will not be commenting any further until we are in a position to announce the firm’s next managing partner.‘
Simmons’ next managing partner will be working alongside senior partner Julian Taylor who was appointed in July 2021. The firm announced in November that its partnership had voted to extend Taylor’s term until July 2027.
