Simmons & Simmons has taken on former Clifford Chance corporate and projects partner David Shasha in a bid to boost its newly reshuffled corporate practice

Shasha, a partner at Cliff-ord Chance for 15 years, left in mid-2001 to spend more time with his family. At Clifford Chance he handled corporate and international projects work with an emphasis on the energy sector. In the year before he left, he handled a bid by Electricité de France for Ukranian power assets and a Slovak banking privatisation.
Simmons joint administrative head of corporate Jerry Walter told The Lawyer: “A strategic initiative is to build up our corporate and projects practice, both for cross-border work and in the UK. Shasha will work both for the corporate department and the industry-focused international energy group.”
Last September the firm restructured its corporate department to stop its transactional and corporate finance departments competing for work. Previously the two functions had separate budgets and competed for clients, causing significant tension.