Simmons & Simmons has moved to rebuild its US capital markets capacity in London with the hire of a lawyer from Clifford Chance's (CC's) Hong Kong office.

The top 15 UK law firm has hired Julian Perlmutter as a corporate partner in its City equity capital markets team. Perlmutter, who is currently a foreign counsel with CC in Hong Kong, is expected to join Simmons on 14 November when he will become the second US-qualified partner in Simmons' ECM team alongside Charles Hawes.

The hire comes after Simmons lost US securities partner Daniel Winterfeldt in March to CMS Cameron McKenna, where he became head of international capital markets.

Perlmutter, who was raised in the US, has spent seven years working for CC in New York, Hong Kong and London. His practice focuses on advising both underwriter and issuer clients on a range of equity and debt issuances and Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory compliance issues. He was most recently part of the CC team advising Prada on its recent Hong Kong IPO.

Commenting on the hire, Simmons head of ECM Chris Horton said the Perlmutter's addition would further strengthen the firm's links to major investment banks.

He added: "We're facing strong demand in ECM and clients have asked us to grow the US team. We are doing a lot of work for the major investment banks, including JP Morgan, Deutsche, Rothschild and RBS, which we were not doing three years ago."

Simmons London ECM team most recently hired a partner in October last year, when Allen & Overy senior associate Colin Bole became a partner with the firm.