Deian Rhys—Simmons & Simmons

Simmons & Simmons has expanded in London with the appointment of Deian Rhys who joined the firm as a partner in its real estate practice.

Deian joined the firm from a major investment bank where he was an executive director and senior counsel. He specialises in international real estate transactions, and has significant experience throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

John Kelsey, head of the firm’s international real estate practice, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Deian to our real estate practice and financial markets group. His appointment emphasises our continued investment in our international real estate offering and our commitment to attracting talented individuals. Deian is highly experienced and comes to us with a valuable insight to handling real estate transactions from a client perspective contributing further to our high quality offering to our real estate clients. His contribution will also add further industry strength to both our financial institutions and our asset management & investment funds sector groups.”

Jonathan Hammond, head of the firm’s international financial institutions sector group continued: “Deian’s appointment is another recent example of our continued ambitions for international growth across the firm and the ongoing plans to expand our real estate practice. Real estate has been a great success for us over the past four years and we want to see that continue with further investment through internal promotions and further lateral hires. His expertise complements those of our existing international partners, yet also provides specific insight from his experience as in-house counsel which will further benefit our clients and their businesses.”