Simmons & Simmons is to close down its Padua office as a 15-lawyer team defects to Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners.

Corporate partners Paolo Brugnera and Marco Malipiero and litigation and insolvency partner Paolo Gnignati are set to join Gianni along with a team of 12 associates. Their start date at the Italian firm is as yet undecided.

Brugnera and Gnignati have been partners at Simmons since 2002, while Malipiero joined the UK firm in 2004 and made partner last year.

In a statement, Simmons said: "Following their consideration of the firm's longer-term business strategy, the Padua team has decided to leave the firm. The decision to leave at this time is the right one for both parties.

"We will of course continue to focus on the growth of our Italian practice through our Milan and Rome offices, where we have over 80 lawyers. As the leading financial and administrative centres in Italy, they remain core to our international strategy."

Gianni M&A partner James Sartor said: "Our Padua office opened in July 2000 and we wanted to grow by a means of lateral hires. As a matter of pure coincidence we ended up speaking with the people at Simmons and recognised that they made a good fit for what we were looking for."

The hires increase partner count in Gianni's Padua office to five.

The news follows Simmons' loss of a 20-lawyer team from the UK firm's Rome office in March this year, when four partners and 16 associates left to join DLA Piper in the Italian capital.

Click here for more international coverage