Simmons & Simmons is bulking up in Frankfurt with the hire of Latham & Watkins partner Martin Meissner to head its German real estate practice.

Meissner is set to join the firm in Germany on 1 January 2011 from the Frankfurt real estate group at Latham.

He brings with him a team of two associates, Sabine Wieduwilt and Harald Heller, and will be the sole partner in the group.

Meissner advises on real estate developments and acquisitions and on the sale and financing of real estate portfolios and individual properties. His client portfolio includes asset management house Henderson Global Investors and warehouse company Harder & Partner.

He said: "What we have discovered is that the platform at Simmons is much better for the progression of associates to partnership, because the department has a lot of room to grow, and I wanted us to stay together and progress as a team.

"There has been a significant increase in real estate work in Germany and we are anticipating quite a boom next year, so it seemed a good time to move and take advantage of this. I will be looking to grow the group at Simmons considerably in the coming months."

Meissner has been at Latham since 2003 and his departure will leave the US firm with five partners in its real estate practice.

Earlier this year Simmons, which has an office in Duesseldorf as well as Frankfurt, held failed merger talks with Mayer Brown. In addition to the US links a tie-up with Mayer Brown would have brought, Simmons was attracted to the deal because of the boost it would have given its China and Germany offerings.