Simmons & Simmons has moved to rebuild its Frankfurt corporate practice with the hire of former Haarmann partner Jan Wildberger, who will lead the UK firm's German private equity practice.

Wildberger was one of four founding partners of the firm Haarmann in 2006 after they left Haarmann Hemmelrath and headed the firm's corporate/M&A and private equity practice until his departure earlier this year. He is due to join Simmons in September.

His appointment, which still needs to be formally approved by the partnership, comes just over six months after Simmons lost a four-lawyer corporate and finance team in Frankfurt to K&L Gates. Corporate partner Mathias Schulze Steinen and banking and finance partner Frank Thomas left in January to launch a Frankfurt office for the US firm, taking two associates with them. Their departures left Simmons with a gap in its corporate offering in the City.

Simmons Duesseldorf and Frankfurt office head Hans-Hermann Aldenhoff said: "Wildberger is a well-known corporate partner in Frankfurt with strong ties to the private equity community. This is an area we want to grow in Germany to plug a geographical gap. We already have a very strong private equity practice for example in the Netherlands and Italy."

It is understood that Wildberger left Haarmann following a disagreement with name partner Wilhelm Haarmann over the German firms' merger talks with US firm Dechert. Dechert had hoped to relaunch in Frankfurt through a union with Haarmann but the local firm decided against the plans.

Wildberger then started talking to Dechert about launching a Frankfurt base for the firm but it is thought that Dechert decided to postpone the launch due to the financial crisis.

Dechert lost the last lawyer in its Frankfurt office in 2005, having originally launched in the city in 2002, and has since been pledging to rebuild in the City. Since 2002 its sole German presence has been in Munich.