Simmons & Simmons has boosted its City team with two restructuring partner hires, including the latest departure from SNR Denton's restructuring and insolvency team.

SNR Denton partner Richard Cook is set to join Simmons' 15-partner banking team next year, although his start date is as yet unconfirmed.

His practice focuses on security enforcement and transactions involving distressed companies, and has been involved in high-profile work such as Battersea Power Station's debt restructuring last year and the administration of Crystal Palace Football Club in 2010.

Meanwhile, Ross Miller has joined Simmons' six-partner UK restructuring team as a partner from Deutsche Bank, where he was London head of legal and risk management in the distressed products group. He specialises in secondary market investment and distressed situations, and joined Deutsche in 2006 after more than five years at CMS Cameron McKenna.

Cook's exit from SNR Denton marks the third recent departure from the firm's UK restructuring and insolvency practice, after news this June that consultant Susan Moore, formerly a senior equity partner, and insolvency partner Elizabeth Elliott are joining Stephenson Harwood.

Following the latest exits, SNR Denton will be left with a core team of 10 partners. Before Cook gave his notice, the firm recruited former Dickinson Dees insolvency chief Will Gunston last October.

When asked if it would find a replacement for Cook, the firm commented: "We are looking carefully at our resource requirements and have not yet come to a firm conclusion."

The news comes a year after SNR Denton's high-profile insolvency head Mark Andrews retired from the firm's partnership. Andrews, who has remained at the firm as a consultant, was legacy Wilde Sapte's senior partner at the time of the merger with Denton Hall in 2000.