Debevoise & Plimpton London-based associate Shashwat Patel has moved to London-headquartered corporate firm Simmons & Simmons as counsel and UK corporate head of its India group.

Patel is a 2009 GNLU Gandhinagar graduate who had begun his career at erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai.

He also holds a 2012 LLM from Columbia Law School, after which he had joined Debevoise, where he had been a member of its India group in London.

“A big part of my role will be to coordinate the group within London, but also amongst the other offices and to proactively work on building the profile of the firm etc in the market,” commented Patel.

Simmons’ India group includes around 25 lawyers who do some India work, including 15 partners, from a variety of practice groups, said Patel.

The majority of the firm’s India work was done between London, Singapore and Dubai.

Patel is qualified to practise law in England, New York and India.

Simmons has 23 offices globally, including three in the UK, and primarily focuses on cross-border corporate and M&A work.

Its profits in the year ending 30 April 2019 were £119.5m.

Shashwat Patel Work history From: Jan 2020 : Counsel and Head of India Group (UK Corporate) , Simmons & Simmons ( London ) Oct 2012 - Dec 2019 : Associate , Debevoise & Plimpton ( London ) Mar 2017 - Aug 2017 : Secondee Legal Counsel - Private Equity Investments , Deutsche Bank ( London ) Jul 2009 - Jun 2011 : Associate , Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co ( Mumbai ) Education 1988 - 2004 : Tejas Vidyalaya, Vadodara, India , Secondary & Higher Secondary Certificate , English, History, Economics, Mathematics, Sciences 2004 - 2009 : Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar , B.Sc, LL.B. with First Class Honors , 2014 - : Columbia University - Columbia Business School , Executive MBA 2011 - 2012 : Columbia Law School , LL.M., Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar