Simmons & Simmons has converted to a limited liability partnership (LLP) becoming one of the last firms among the UK top 20 to do so.

Simmons is a late adopter of the legal structure among the UK's top firms after previously postponing a conversion in the hope that the firm's Hong Kong office would be allowed to be included in the structure.

Simmons has now chosen to set up the LLP with a separate Hong Kong structure, with Hong Kong regulators still working on proposals to permit LLPs in the region.

Simmons has pushed back the UK LLP conversion on a number of occasions, most recently last year when the firm was in the midst of rolling out a new three-year business strategy.

During 2009 Simmons incorporated its Middle East and Japanese practices into LLP structures ahead of the UK conversion. The firm's Moscow office, which closed at the end of last year, had also been run as an LLP since its 2007 launch.

Commenting on the rationale for the conversion, Simmons managing partner Mark Dawkins said: "There are the obvious legal benefits but there is also quite a lot of due diligence that goes into the process of converting the international business into an LLP, which is very good corporate house-keeping."

"We are running Hong Kong separately from the LLP in the same way that all of the other law firms are doing."

Aside from Slaughter and May, Simmons is the last firm in the UK top 20 to register as an LLP after Bird & Bird converted in December 2008.