Osborne Clarke brings in dedicated ex-BLP funds partner Tim Simmonds with plans to grow market share

Osborne Clarke has hired its first dedicated funds partner, bringing in Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) partner Tim Simmonds.

Simmonds, who was based in London until he left BLP at the end of May, is set to join Osborne Clarke in Bristol next week (20 June), where he will be responsible for developing the firm's funds practice across all types of investment funds, including private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds.

He will sit within the financial services team at Osborne Clarke, taking the number of partners in the team to three.

At BLP, where he was head of funds and financial services regulatory, he worked with clients including Close Brothers, HSBC, Legal & General, Invista, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Palmer Capital, LaSalle, Duet Private Equity and Aegon.

He also advised groups such as ING, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, BlackRock and Wellcome Trust.

At BLP, Simmonds has been replaced by funds partner Antony Grossman as head of the funds group.

Osborne Clarke financial service group head Paul Anning commented: "Tim's hire is a major signal to the market of how committed we are to increasing our strength in those sectors and growing our market share. He's a highly experienced lawyer with a great reputation, whose leadership will significantly develop our funds practice."

Simmonds is the second senior hire in Osborne Clarke's financial services team in under a month, following the appointment of Addleshaw Goddard legal director David Blair as head of financial regulation in May.

Meanwhile, the firm added a dedicated urban regeneration partner to its City real estate team on 8 June with the hire of Norton Rose urban regeneration head Rajindh Mangat.