Simmons & Simmons has made a double partner hire from K&L Gates' London office, taking on the US firm's UK heads of pensions and employee incentives.

Pensions partner Danny Tsang and employment partner Ian Fraser have joined Simmons' City employment and benefits team, taking the total partner count in the group to 10.

Tsang has been at K&L Gates since 2007, when he joined from McDermott Will & Emery to launch a London pensions practice for the firm. His practice covers plan restructurings and corporate pensions strategies, as well as pensions aspects relating to corporate transactions, business recovery and restructuring.

Meanwhile, Fraser has been at K&L Gates for around eight years after joining its City tax practice as a partner in 2005 from Baker & McKenzie, where he was an associate. He was also previously a tax consultant at accountancy giant KPMG.

Simmons global head of employment Simon Watson said: "The firm is in an ambitious growth drive at the moment, so we expect to see further additions to our employment group over the next year or so. 

"In London, incentives work is hot at the moment. And on pensions, although we are seeing an environment where decreasing numbers are entering defined benefits schemes, the liabilities in relation to such schemes can often be critical in relation to corporate transactions."

Other recent partner hires for Simmons include Addleshaw Goddard energy and infrastructure partner Andrew Petry in London, as well as Field Fisher Waterhouse partner Thomas Adam and Norton Rose banking and finance partner Dan Marjanovic, who have been recruited for the firm's launches in Munich and Singapore respectively.

A number of partners have moved between Simmons and K&L Gates, including Simmons finance partner Natalie Boyd who joined K&L Gates' Dubai office last September.

K&L Gates also hired Simmons' former Middle East head Paul Simpson in 2011, and launched in Paris with the hire of a trio of Simmons lawyers led by partner Edouard Vitry in the same year.