Lovells has lost Italian private equity head Andrea Accornero, who is heading for the Milan office of rival City firm Simmons & Simmons.

Accornero begins at Simmons on 1 May, joining an international private equity team headed up by Milan-based partner Marco Franzini. The branch opened in 1993 and currently numbers around 50 fee earners, including 11 partners.

Accornero will be replaced at Lovells as local private equity chief by Italian managing partner Leah Dunlop, who has held the role previously, having helped launch the practice.

Following the departure of Accornero, Lovells – which launched in Italy in 2000 – will have seven partners concentrating on corporate and private equity work in the Italian market.

Lovells managing partner David Harris commented: "Our Italian private equity and corporate practice is in very good shape following significant investment over the last year.

"We have had a good flow of transactional work in Italy and have just advised on a €1bn (£790m) sovereign fund investment in Sintonia, the Benetton family infrastructure holding company."

Last year Lovells boosted its German transactional team with the hire of senior Simmons corporate partner Franz-Josef Schone, who had headed up the firm's local corporate team.