Simmons expands in Frankfurt with hire of four top real estate partners

Simmons & Simmons has hired a four-partner real estate transactions team from Goodwin in Frankfurt, expanding in the German city just as many rivals have scaled back.

The incoming group includes transactions specialists Marc Bohne and Moritz Vettermann, tax and structuring partner Felix Krüger and finance partner Jochen Schnepper, who will also be joined by a team of associates. The team is well known for advising leading corporate and private equity clients on high-profile real estate deals.

For Simmons, it marks the latest step in a European real estate push. Last month, the firm recruited two real estate partners in Paris from Hogan Lovells while, in London, it added partner from Danielle Hirsch from MoFo to its private equity real estate team in January and brought in Clifford Chance’s former head of construction Marianne Toghill in December.

German market changes

The move comes amid some notable exits from Frankfurt. Goodwin itself is closing its office there later this year. Dechert departed last year, while Cleary will fold its Frankfurt team into its other Germany office in Cologne also later this year.

Meanwhile, Simmons is among several firms doubling down on Frankfurt and Germany more broadly. Kirkland opened in Frankfurt last year with a prominent addition from Latham, while Willkie has been the most active, opening in Hamburg this summer with a 25-lawyer team and adding to existing bases in Munich and Frankfurt.

What they said

Ali Crosthwaite, head of UK real estate and co-head of the firm’s cross-border real estate group, said: "As we see other firms retrenching from real estate in certain markets, we see an unrivalled opportunity to attract high calibre partners to our excellent cross border real estate network as we seek to provide a "one-stop shop" to our institutional and PERE clients for complex, cross-border mandates."

Thomas Scharfenberg, Simmons’ Germany chief, added: "This hire is an exciting and strategically very important development for Germany and our Frankfurt office in particular.

"Our offering in Germany, which includes first class transactional and project development real estate expertise in our Frankfurt and Munich offices, is integral to the firm and these hires reflect the top quality and long-term growth ambitions that Simmons has for the market."