Simmons & Simmons is set to see six partners compete for the role of senior partner as the firm begins the process to elect David Dickinson's successor next month.

The candidates' papers went out to partners last week, with current managing partner Mark Dawkins standing against litigation partners Colin Passmore and Philip Vaughan, corporate partners Charles Mayo and Thierry Gontard and energy partner Patrick Wallace.

The partners are all based in Simmons' City headquarters with the exception of Gontard, who manages the firm's Paris office.

It is understood that the candidates' views regarding the urgency of a US merger deal is one of the key differentiating factors, with Passmore, Wallace and Gontard understood to be in favour of actively searching out a merger partner sooner rather than later.

The winning candidate will be required to secure 50% of the votes and will take over the senior partner role from Dickinson from 1 August this year.

It is understood that Dawkins has very strong support from the partnership, but that he had strongly considered stepping down from management in favour of a return to fee-earning in financial institutions litigation.

One Simmons partner said: "There has been a long thought process on his end about whether he should stand. He has very strong support from Jeremy [Hoyland] and I think that could be what won him over ultimately."

"The big debate we have is whether we should merge, and there is a certain group of candidates that think we should do that with urgency, while others think that we should wait until a suitably good candidate comes knocking on our door. I think partners in general are more in favour of a merger now than perhaps they were a year ago."

The election comes after Simmons finalised its managing partner election in January, with finance head Jeremy Hoyland voted in to replace Dawkins from 1 May this year.