As its key rivals bet on aggressive global expansion, Simmons is continuing its efforts to be a top-tier player under its own steam. Sofia Lind asks if the firm has the drive and ambition to avoid being the City's perennial also-ran

As the 1990s drew to a close it was already clear that Simmons & Simmons faced a stark dilemma: attempt to keep pace with the larger City firms pulling off into an orbit of their own or chart a new course that would require the firm to reinvent its business.

Despite profits that were by then already badly lagging the magic circle and Simmons faring poorly during a defining decade for the City legal community, there was never much doubt that the firm would choose the former path. While it lacked the scale or aggressive style of larger rivals, in 1999 then managing partner David Dickinson said as much when he stated flatly to the media: "Simmons & Simmons is in a strong position to challenge the top five City firms."

Thirteen years later, a new leadership team of managing partner Jeremy Hoyland and senior partner Colin Passmore is still attempting to make good on that promise. Indeed, Simmons' new strategy and three-year business plan has a familiar refrain.

"We will build a leading global law firm through a huge focus on our sector areas and growing in the Far East," says Passmore. "We are well aware that this is an ambitious strategy, but we will couple this with ensuring that we have a very high-performance culture."

Such ambitions seem even more daunting now than they did in the late 1990s. Recent years have seen the 700-lawyer firm continue to invest internationally, with new offices in Europe, Middle East and Asia and, in the wake of a partnership restructuring in 2004, Simmons went on to achieve robust financial performance during the boom, aided considerably by its finance practice. By 2008 confidence in a firm not always sure of itself was high as revenues neared £300m and profits per equity partner (PEP) soared to £647,000 – the first time for years it had exceeded the average PEP across the UK top 50.

Yet hopes that the 210-partner firm had finally secured a breakthrough soon faced a reality check as Simmons proved one of the hardest-hit City firms during the 2009 recession and its prolonged aftermath. By 2010-11, Simmons' income had fallen £48.3m from its peak – a drop of 17% even before accounting for the impact of inflation – while PEP was down to £460,000.

"It's like Groundhog Day," says one former Simmons partner on the new strategy, referring to the comedy classic starring Bill Murray as a reluctant TV weatherman forced to relive the same day over and over again until realising he needs to rethink life's priorities before he can move on.

With Simmons' priorities remaining unchanged, the consensus among its partnership is that its hopes of success will rest largely on improved execution of a familiar gameplan. On this there may be some cause for optimism – at least judged by the mood among partners, many of whom maintain the pairing of Passmore and Hoyland can tap a new dynamism across the firm.

But with big strategic bets being placed by its natural peers like Norton Rose and Hogan Lovells, the firm now arguably only has a limited window to make substantive progress before its hopes of becoming a credible global player become not just daunting, but fanciful.

Three steps forward, two back

There is nothing new about Simmons attempting to grapple with the challenges of the shifting legal market. With the firm tracing its history back to 1896 – it was launched by 21-year-old twin brothers Edward and Percy Simmons and initially focused on insurance and property clients – its ambitions to better itself have been evident for much of its post-war history.

When Edward's son and firm leader Gordon passed away in 1971, the then 25-partner firm began moving to reposition itself from family firm to modern business partnership. The firm expanded substantially through the 70s and 80s – during this period launching in Hong Kong (in 1979) and forming dedicated corporate and litigation practices. Ironically, for a firm often criticised for being slow-moving, its growth during this phase was startling, as it built a near 100-partner firm by the end of the 1980s, making it one of the City's largest practices. Expansion was sustained during the early 1990s, with heavy investment in banking and capital markets allied with office launches in Milan, Rome, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai between 1993 and 1995.

With the Italian and Asia offices swiftly established as well-regarded operations, Simmons, until the mid-90s in many respects looked well-placed as London law firms embarked on an industry-defining period of expansion.

Yet the firm had never quite been a member of the small club of leading City practices and had to plough on without the client base of more established transactional firms. On a more basic level, many questioned whether Simmons' partnership ethos, which emphasised flair and individualism, was entirely suited to the competitive disciplines required for a modern City giant. One Simmons veteran remembers a firm in which then senior partner Stephen James would be accompanied in the car that picked him up by his two dogs, who often also sat in his office. It wasn't quite the style you associated with thrusting City firms – even 20 years ago.

But quirks aside, it was the extent to which Simmons became the target of predatory raids in the late-1990s and the gap that was opening in scale and profitability with larger firms that raised bigger questions over the firm's ability to make good on its lofty aims. And despite unquestioned strengths in commercial areas like intellectual property (IP) and employment and an upwardly mobile finance practice, Simmons remained a somewhat disparate group of practices, and one with a perennially underweight corporate team (see Under the Bonnet – Simmons' Practice Close Up, below).

With the firm typically being criticised for a laidback approach, Simmons made a concerted effort to set a more robust culture for partners and, under senior partner Janet Gaymer and David Dickinson, restructured its partnership in 2004. Eleven partners were cut from the firm's equity on performance grounds, while the firm also raised billing targets for partners and associates.

Given that other major initiatives around this period – such as merging with Rotterdam firm Nolst Trenite and the firm's abortive merger talks with Watson Farley & Williams – had failed to excite the partnership, the restructuring was generally received as a welcome and decisive step. At the same time, the firm was continuing to expand internationally even if it struggled to manage some of its additions, and several prized foreign offices were to suffer some painful departures, most notably the loss of a nine-partner team in Hong Kong in 2006 (see Simmons Internationally – Early but Uneven, below).

The Hong Kong departures hurt, but in many respects Simmons was making ground. Banking litigator Mark Dawkins had replaced Dickinson as managing partner in 2005, reflecting the successful expansion of its finance practice. The same year, the firm forged sector groups focused on four areas: financial markets; life sciences; energy and infrastructure; and technology, media and telecoms. The firm had continuity in management, with Dickinson replacing Gaymer as senior partner in 2006 after a contested election. The high point came during the 2007-08 year when revenues increased 16% to £289m while PEP was up 22% to a record high of £647,000.

On paper, large litigation and commercial practices and a relatively small corporate business suggested that Simmons would have been relatively resilient in the face of the banking crisis and subsequent recession of 2009. In reality, Simmons was one of the worst hit firms, in 2009 announcing largescale job cuts, including 91 staff redundancies in London.

Simmons continued to move to cut back costs, with Dawkins intent on forging a leaner practice. During 2010 around 10 underperforming partners left the firm in managed exits, the firm's offices in Moscow and Padua were closed and the firm split from its Portuguese arm.

Total cost savings were estimated to be as high as £30m, but it was not enough to stop the firm's PEP falling to £461,000 in 2010. Ominously, the firm once against found itself losing partners to US law firms, with high-profile finance litigator Jonathan Kelly leaving for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 2010.

In the last 18 months, the firm has also seen a number of departures in Europe and the Middle East. In Germany, banking head Ingrid Kalisch opted for a move to a US firm in a two-partner move to Kaye Scholer, while Allen & Overy (A&O) hired Middle East head of banking Samer Eido to head its Doha banking practice.

Other notable recent losses have included the departure of City funds duo Tim Pearce and Ian Meade to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in March. Promoted internally within Simmons, the duo were tipped as rising stars in a core growth area and followed the departure of another funds partner in January, when Noel Ainsworth joined Morgan Lewis & Bockius' London office.

Worldwide, over 20 partners have departed during the last 18 months, although around a quarter of them are understood to have been managed out in one form or another (Simmons did last year hit the headlines for recruiting a five-partner banking finance team from Berwin Leighton Paisner that includes a number of highly regarded practitioners).

The firm has also made attempts to grow: it has hired 25 partners in the last year and opened a new office in Beijing in 2011. Among more radical attempts were the 2010 aborted merger talks with Mayer Brown, which were abruptly ended with a press release from the US firm.

The talks ended in part because of bad blood between Simmons' and Mayer Brown's Hong Kong outfits, with Asia arm Mayer Brown JSM particularly cool on the idea. Other reasons floated included Mayer Brown's London office being too large and a disparity in profitability: Simmons' PEP stood at £461,000 at the time compared to a Mayer Brown sterling equivalent of £717,000.

However, it is clear that there was a general lack of support from Simmons partners in London, who were uneasy about the implications of the deal – despite Dawkins being a strong supporter of a merger.

In a sign of apparent unease at the firm, Dawkins was beaten in the election for senior partner by litigator Colin Passmore in December 2010. Dawkins himself became another high-profile departure when he quit to join the London arm of Bingham McCutchen in June 2011, returning to practice as a banking litigator.

Amid departures, recriminations regarding the Mayer Brown talks and disappointing performance, Hoyland (pictured) took over the managing partner role in May 2011 from Dawkins, with Passmore replacing Dickinson in August that year. The firm's in-tray looked ominously full.

Doing something

The new management pair soon illustrated their intention to prod Simmons towards a more robust performance culture, that autumn pushing through changes to Simmons' partnership deed that cut a £400,000 minimum payout to restructured equity partners and scrapping the bonus awards to resigning partners.

At the firm's annual partner conference, the pair discussed their intention to improve profitability and pressed partners to raise their performance.

In January 2012, news emerged that Simmons was executing its third significant partnership restructuring in a decade. The process is expected to affect around a dozen partners who
will either be asked to stand down, face demotion or be formally asked to raise their performance.

A restructuring of the Middle East practice was also confirmed, with more than 10 redundancies executed.

Central to the strategy is growing the firm's profitability, with some partners stating a PEP target of £750,000 by the end of the business plan period, although management has denied that there is set target. The overall strategy focuses on becoming a top-tier adviser in its industry focus groups and growing a high-performance culture, while the business plan will see it focusing its growth efforts on its strong practice areas and in the Far East.

It is fair to say there is some scepticism regarding the firm's chances of achieving dramatic change through the well-worn path of sector groups. One ex-partner comments: "It's hard to discern any difference from any of the last two three-year plans. We set out aiming for £650,000 PEP before the credit crunch hit and markets turned unpredictable. It's like the firm's strategy starts over and over again."

Hoyland takes the critique in his stride, responding: "The strategy is built around the sector focus and we think that works for us. That has been successful. I want to continue with what works, and why wouldn't I?"

Sectors aside, the consensus is that much of Simmons' success will turn on the ability of its leadership to robustly implement its vision and win support from the partnership for a cultural shift.

Despite Dawkins and Dickinson having been regarded as popular leaders in their time, Dickinson shied away from upsetting the partnership. Dawkins, in contrast, had often favoured more radical solutions, including shifting Simmons from a generalist practice towards a more focused firm based around its core finance practice.

One former partner says: "The firm has had a problem with execution. When the going gets tough it has tended to back away, similar to firms like [legacy Denton Wilde Sapte]. Dickinson, especially, was a bit more holistic in his approach to people – perhaps executing difficult decisions will make all the difference."

In contrast, Hoyland – who enjoyed widespread support within the firm during his term as head of finance – has already been able to push through a number of initiatives the firm had previously toyed with but not pushed through. Passmore (pictured) – whose election victory over Dawkins probably benefited from the perception that Hoyland was Dawkins' natural successor and close ally – also gains solid notices from partners, who view him as a pragmatic operator.

"They are a bit of a dream team and we have very high hopes of them," says one Simmons partner. "They get along well with one another and are both well-respected lawyers in their areas of practice. It is positive that they are very focused on profitability, but it is one thing to target improvement and quite another to actually achieve it."

There is also much talk of badging Simmons as a more imaginative firm. The firm is quick to tout its recently-announced Bristol launch plans. It seems a sensible move, leveraged off Simmons' reputation as a progressive firm and giving it a chance to profitably handle mid-range commercial work from a lower cost base but also one of England's most lawyer-friendly cities (Dawkins had previously floated similar ideas without success).

Simmons also hopes to reinforce its reputation for innovation in other regards, including upgrades to its online client briefing service elexica.com and its subscription-only global regulatory advice platform, Navigator.

Growing from strengths

Notably, the new business plan will see Simmons adding asset management as a fifth sector group. Currently sitting within financial institutions, asset management counted for around £31m of revenues in its 2010-11 year. The practice is largely focused on hedge fund advice at the moment, with Simmons estimating that it currently advises 17 of Europe's top funds, including BlackRock, Lansdowne Partners and BlueCrest Capital Management.

While Simmons will face growing competition in the sector from US law firms aggressively moving into the private equity fund formation space (a slightly distinct niche), there is no doubt it punches
well above its weight in the area, and the move receives much support.

There is also backing for the firm's aim to further build its already impressive financial markets business, based on particular strength in litigation and a proven ability to win panel appointments from many of the most coveted banking clients (see Key Clients, Work and Wins, below).

There is less consensus regarding plans for corporate, which some argue should be reduced to a support team. Hoyland unsurprisingly disagrees. "[Corporate] generates very much of its own work. Just because it is not as large as in other firms doesn't mean it does not have critical mass. Our corporate lawyers focus on our sectors and they do it well."

He adds: "I would certainly like for corporate to be bigger and, while we have had some performance issues with corporate partners, we have recently been recruiting to the practice. However, it is important to us to hire the right talent and avoid taking a 'build it and they will come' type approach."

A more contentious issue for Simmons to consider is whether it pursues a major merger, most likely with a US law firm. The most common comment from ex-partners and rivals – and some partners within the firm – is that Simmons will need to achieve a merger in order to thrive in a turbulent global legal market.

While the firm has shied away from pursuing such deals since its 2002 talks with Watson Farley – which ran into a lack of support from corporate partners concerned at a union with another finance-heavy practice – it has not been short of offers. DLA Piper has expressed interest in the firm in recent years. The leadership at CMS Cameron McKenna has also flirted with Simmons, in part of a grand notion of putting together a string of deals that would have included Norton Rose (although there is little evidence of interest from the firms informally sounded out by CMS).

Passmore says that the firm has not been put off pursuing another US deal by the Mayer Brown discussions, conceding the firm needs to "do something" in the key legal market over the next five years.

It remains a credible goal. Whatever the firm's shortcomings, it has built a strong position with institutional clients and a sizeable global network: two prized assets for a US suitor. It appears that the firm is intent on improving profitability both in a necessary end in itself but also to give it a strong position for a transatlantic deal.

One ex-partner comments: "Over the years, Simmons has zigzagged up and down. It bounces along so long as the market supports it, which is fine, but things are changing and the high-end major global firms have created a huge price pressure on everybody else. They will have to merge. They would be a good candidate to form part of a global firm and especially attractive to a US firm as an instantly recognisable brand in Europe."

"I don't accept the notion that the firm has to merge," responds Hoyland. "I don't feel under pressure to deliver a UK or a US merger. What is imperative is to grow the business and be profitable." However, he adds: "Separately, I believe that there will be more consolidation in the market and eventually this will include Simmons. The middle ground is difficult but the sector strategy has been our response to that. Some view mergers as the cure to all evils, but I don't accept that. There are plenty of examples of bad mergers in the legal industry."

Breaking the cycle

So what are Simmons' chances for success as it faces a legal market in flux at home and abroad? There remains some substance to critics' contentions that the firm has never properly resolved what its identity should be or yet come up with a convincing long-term strategy to be an independent global player.

The last 15 years has been a mixed period, in which Simmons has had considerable successes – not least in its expansion in finance – but also some notable reverses.

Overall, it has not quite made the ground its own strategy demands.
There is also little doubt that the burst of strategic activity among its chasing pack peers like Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose, Ashurst and Herbert Smith means that in the long term Simmons will probably have to "do something" substantial if it wants to stay relevant for international clients. The firm does not really have the option to just sit tight and hope that a lack of strategic development is viewed as a natural state for its peer group, while firms like Norton Rose continue to dramatically reinvent themselves.

But the pressing short-term issue will be for Simmons to achieve several years of respectable financial performance to help ward off defections and strengthen the hand of its new management team. In this regard, the firm looks to have some positive news, with Simmons expecting to post solid increases in revenue and PEP for the 2011-12 year.

The firm will also have to make good on the claims that it can rally around its current management team and achieve some substantive progress. Hoyland underscores this: "What is different this time? Implementation. There is a now a greater understanding of what it takes to improve the firm's profitability. It is all about the implementation and I am very confident that the partners are now on board with this."

"We now have a new strategy and a new business plan and, if we make progress on that, we will grow our profitability," concludes Hoyland. "Perhaps then some other deals will materialise from that."

High-profile former senior partner Bill Knight (pictured) agrees, striking a more definite note: "If the future of legal services belongs to global firms, then Simmons will form a part of a global firm."
After all, what other option is there?

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Under the bonnet – Simmons' practice close up

Simmons & Simmons' practice differs from the hub-and-spoke model used to varying degrees at most of its peer group, based around a core corporate practice supported by practice groups like tax, employment, pensions and finance. In contrast, areas of finance, litigation and commercial disciplines like intellectual property (IP) and employment have traditionally driven the firm's practice.

On the transactional side, finance has increasingly been established as Simmons' most influential group and the largest of its four current core sector groups, accounting for more than half of its revenues in 2010-11. Simmons has underlined its intention to build on this strength by deciding to strip out asset management as a new sector group. Investment funds is one of a select number of areas, alongside employment law, life sciences and derivatives, where the firm is top-rated in the UK and competes with the magic circle.

The firm has also this month hired DLA Piper's head of investment funds in the UK, David Williams, who focuses on investment funds and asset management, for the London office. Simmons' major funds clients include BlackRock, Lansdowne Partners and BlueCrest Capital Management.

The firm's financial markets practice also has an strong track record for panel wins, and was reappointed to the Credit Suisse EMEA panel in February, while gaining first appointments to the Societe Generale global panel in December last year as well as China Development Bank in October and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank global panel in July.

The firm's hunger to expand in finance was further illustrated last year with one of the largest team hires seen in the City when Simmons recruited a five-partner finance team from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), including prominent partners Mark Waghorn, Simon Kildahl and Robert Jones.

Outside of financial markets, the firm's technology, media and telecoms (TMT) practice saw an important development in being appointed to Virgin Media's first panel in November last year, added to the key telecoms client list alongside existing major client Telefonica. Despite long-running tensions over the firm's lack of bite in corporate, Simmons has pledged to sustain investment in the practice area, having added a number of partners to the practice in recent months including BLP's Pollyanna Deane and Travers Smith's Caroline Murphy in London.

The underlying dilemma for Simmons is that it does not have the clear centre of gravity to its practice seen at many of its peers or clear industry ties aside from its large financial services practice (the arguable exception lies in life sciences, thanks in part to its highly regarded contentious IP practice). Critics would contend this has resulted in a firm divided between a core financial services group and a fairly disparate group of standalone practices, albeit many of them with strong reputations.

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Simmons internationally – early but uneven

Unlike some of its chasing pack peers, Simmons & Simmons was a committed early internationalist, having by the 1990s established some highly regarded foreign offices, even if the firm struggled to build on its efforts during the 2000s. Currently, the international practice generates around half of the firm's revenue but, with Simmons' future ambitions targeted on emerging markets, the firm is hoping to significantly grow beyond continental Europe.

The firm launched its first foreign branch in 1962 in Brussels, following up in Hong Kong in 1979. Continental Europe is by far the most developed group, with sizable practices in France, the Netherlands and Italy, while Spain is rebounding after a tough couple of years. Simmons is understood to have lost seven-figure sums in trying to bed down the merger with Madrid-based Mochales & Palacios in 2007, which turned out to be a more domestically-focused practice than hoped for. Now under management of litigation and restructuring partner Andres Mochales, it is tipped as a strong future prospect.

Its European practice has a number of strengths, including a strong Italian litigation practice, which recently hired Hogan Lovells litigator Cristina Pagni in Milan. In Germany, the practice has had a mixed track record, with continuous efforts to strengthen and grow but with solid financial results throughout. However, it most recently saw the departure of German head of corporate and M&A Ulrich Brauer to Jones Day in March.

The firm has a well-established Dutch practice thanks to its only large international union with Nolst Trenite in 2002. The deal was criticised by some for giving Simmons a larger than necessary presence in a low-priority European market and because the legacy firm was based in Rotterdam. In response, Simmons in 2007 began moving its national operation from Rotterdam to Amsterdam.

Though the Amsterdam practice has ultimately become profitable, the shift proved more costly than expected and resulted in a significant number of departures.

Overall, the firm's continental European practice has fallen from nearly 300 lawyers in 2007 to a total of 204, with partner count down from 84 to 72 over the same period. Stripping down in Europe arguably reflects the persistent criticism that Simmons' strengths have been in secondary markets at the expense of making ground in key economies like France and Germany.

Simmons was also an early entrant in the Middle East, with the launch of its Abu Dhabi office in 1994. The office was able to turn a profit in the mid-2000s boom years but has been struggling alongside Dubai in the post-financial crisis years. Simmons has recently laid off more than 10 staff across the two offices in an exercise which it said realigned the Middle East practice with the firm's key sector strengths.

The restructuring comes as Simmons had taken some difficult decisions for its international practice already in 2010, when it closed Moscow and Padua and spun off its Portuguese joint venture (JV) in cost-saving measures.

But in terms of setbacks, Simmons' international practice saw probably its biggest reverse in 2006, when it lost nine partners and their teams to the Asia launch of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson – punching a hole in what many regarded as the jewel in its international crown. The firm is still prominent in Asia in several of its key practices, including investment funds, capital markets and employment law, and it is one of a few firms with a Japan offering through the JV with TMI Associates.

The firm has set its aim on growing back to strength in Hong Kong and mainland China and finally launched in Beijing in 2011 after several false starts (initially the Fried Frank departees were expected to drive a launch in the Chinese capital, but the signature partner on the application left on several occasions before a licence was granted). However, Southeast Asia remains a blank spot on the firm's map.

Simmons clearly now trails many of its City rivals in the Asia region, with 16 partners and 36 lawyers, figures that have barely changed against five years ago. However, the firm has been in recruitment mode in Asia, making four partner hires already in 2012.

Chambers and Partners gives the firm a band one ranking in Asia for funds work and employment law and a band one ranking for life sciences in France.

Top ranked individuals according to the directory include litigation partners Lesli Ligorner and Fiona Loughrey and investment funds partner Rolfe Hayden in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, competition partner Marco Slotboom and corporate specialist Gerhard Gispen are both highly rated in Amsterdam.

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Key clients, work and wins

Simmons & Simmons manages a priority client programme of 25 top companies, which tilts heavily towards its strengths in finance. The firm has an additional 75 target growth clients. Key clients include UBS, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, AES, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, Network Rail, Veolia and Telefonica.

Major panel wins since 2010

March 2012 – Qatari Diar (inaugural panel)

February 2012 – Arabtec legal panel (appointment)

February 2012 – Credit Suisse EMEA panel (re-appointment)

December 2011 – Societe Generale global panel (appointment)

November 2011 – Virgin Media (inaugural panel)

October 2011 – China Development Bank legal panel (appointment)

August 2011 – Veolia UK panel (re-appointment)

July 2011 – Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank global panel (appointment)

July 2011 – Barclays global general advisory panel (and other specialist panels) (re-appointment)

March 2011 – Deutsche preferred firm list (appointment), AXA (reappointment)

February 2011 – Bank of America Merrill Lynch EMEA panel (inaugural post-merger panel)

September 2010 – Irish Government's NAMA panel for a three-year term (inaugural panel)

May 2010 – Citigroup panel (silver 16, global panel, appointment), Shell panel as sole UK adviser for projects development advice (appointment)

April 2010 – Standard Chartered UK panel (appointment)

January 2010 – Ministry of Defence major projects panel

Headline work

Munib Masri – advised Jordanian businessman Munib Masri on a sprawling seven-year legal battle to secure and enforce a $75m (£46m) judgment related to oil concessions in Yemen. The case, which settled in September, covered 12 jurisdictions and is generally viewed as one of the most complex cases to have gone before the commercial courts.

Former Olympus president Michael Woodford – advising Woodford, who was sacked after blowing the whistle on controversial deals at the company.

CRC Credit Fund – advising the lead respondent for the successful class of client money claimants in the client money application in relation to Lehman Brothers' insolvency.

BlueCrest – advised on the acquisition by its partners of Man Group's 25.5% stake in the BlueCrest group for a total consideration of $633m (£389m).

Kier Group – advised on the construction and engineering group's successful appeal against the size of its fine, following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.

HMV Group – advised on the sale of Waterstones to A&NN Capital Fund Management.
Ministry of Justice – advised the ministry on two 'groundbreaking' procurement competitions to provide prisoner escort and custody services throughout England and Wales and custodial services at four prisons.

Samsung – advising on intellectual property rights behind their smartphones and tablet computers in a case against Apple covering the Netherlands and UK.

Source: Legal Week; Simmons & Simmons

• Related: Simmons confirms first partner relocations for Bristol launch