Simmons & Simmons has confirmed that it is hiring a five-partner finance team from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

In addition to John Hayward and Mark Waghorn, former Berwin Leighton managing partner Robert Jones is also joining Simmons along with partners Simon Kildahl and Richard Hughes.

The move will be seen as a significant loss for BLP's finance practice, with the team regularly acting for a range of banking clients. It is understood that the team was attracted to Simmons by the strength of its bank relationships, with the firm having won a raft of major panel appointments in recent years.

Simmons managing partner Jeremy Hoyland told Legal Week: "For some years now we have been building up the transactional banking side of the finance practice and aimed to get a regular flow of transactional deals through the practice. We have made progress but that side is still relatively small and doesn't have the strength and depth compared to the rest of the finance practice.

"The fit with these guys is extremely good and they have a great reputation in the market. The feedback we have been getting from clients has been very good."

Between them, the five partners have relationships with banks such as RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander.

Jones was managing partner of legacy Berwin Leighton from 1996 to 1999 and head of the firm's corporate department from 1994 to 1996. As a deal lawyer, he specialised in advising on business reconstructions and reorganisations, but has recently been serving as a business development partner.

Kildahl is a property finance partner, while Hughes has a wide practice focused on banking and general finance, securitisation and structured finance, property finance and asset finance. Hayward specialises in leveraged finance, including management buyouts and public-to-private transactions, while Waghorn's practice focuses on property finance, corporate recovery and turnaround work.

Both Hayward and Waghorn left BLP at the end of April, although Waghorn was due to continue as a consultant with the firm and hand over his client work.

BLP's finance team has recently been the subject of a review led by finance head Matthew Kellett. Legal Week reported in March that the firm is to restructure its finance practice around more profitable areas of work. The firm's finance practice had 42 partners and 120 other fee earners in London when the review was announced in March.

The practice advises clients including RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Wilmington Trust, Tesco, Philips and Capita.

Meanwhile, Simmons' finance practice is now headed by City capital markets partner Jonathan Hammond after former head Jeremy Hoyland took over the firmwide managing partner role earlier this month (1 May).