International law firm Simmons & Simmons has today announced revisions to the management and structure of its disputes practice, to further hone its focus on clients.
This is the first major development overseen by Simmons’ newly appointed international head of dispute resolution, Emily Monastiriotis, who took the reins in July having formerly headed-up the UK group.
Patrick Boylan will replace Emily as UK disputes head. Patrick has been with Simmons since 2009, specialising in commercial disputes with a particular focus on contentious competition matters, cross-border disputes, civil fraud cases and arbitration.
Emma Sutcliffe will fill a newly created role as head of disputes and investigations. Emma has been with Simmons since 2005 and acts on a range of major financial markets disputes (investment and retail) with emphasis on contentious regulatory issues, as well as ESG matters.
Commenting on the development, Emily Monastiriotis said: “Combining specialisms into one unified group - disputes and investigations - better reflects the needs of our clients, and the cross-specialist nature of advice required to tackle complex disputes. This new management structure will also ensure that our lawyers, particularly in the early years, will gain greater breadth and commerciality as they develop their careers. With an enviable range of services and skillsets within our existing teams, including our crime, competition, construction & insurance and IP practices, we are ideally positioned to sharpen our focus. Ultimately, our aim is to provide exceptionally valuable legal counsel to our clients, and I believe that our approach achieves this.”