Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has hired a pair of leveraged finance partners in London from US rival Sidley Austin. 

Bryan Robson and William Gwyn will join the firm as partners and focus on leveraged finance matters, Simpson Thacher said in a statement. Their hire follows the firm recruiting leveraged finance partner Dan Peach last month from Linklaters. 

Simpson Thacher’s hires come against the background of an unusually active lateral hiring market in London among top-tier firms which has even seen global powerhouses Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins successfully targeted by rivals over a sustained period.

Robson and Gwyn spent around eight years at Sidley, where Robson was co-head of the leveraged finance practice. Earlier both men were associates in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis, according to their LinkedIn bios. 

Their debt finance practice incorporates leveraged finance, specialist credit opportunities and distressed investing. They represent lead arrangers, lead agents, lenders, participants and borrowers in syndicated and bilateral credit deals and have advised on matters ranging from large-cap to middle-market transactions across a variety of sectors.

Wheatly MacNamara, managing partner of Simpson Thacher’s London office, said: “The addition of Bryan and Will follows the firm’s hire of Dan Peach and will bolster our European financing capabilities, providing clients with sophisticated transactional support for critical mandates.”

The hire of Robson, Gwyn and Peach also replenishes Simpson Thacher’s London leveraged finance bench following the exit of senior partners Ian Barratt and Sinead O’Shea to Kirkland just over a year ago. 

Meantime, the exit of Robson and Gwyn from Sidley comes as the firm makes a concerted effort to grow its London finance bench, which it said had doubled in size over the past three months. 

The firm has recruited heavily from Latham to aid the effort, adding a five-partner leveraged finance team from the firm in August and hitting it again last month for debt capital markets partners Scott Colwell and Patrick Kwak. Just today Sidley also announced the hire of Latham’s London finance co-chair, Tania Bedi.

Sidley has also lost senior talent in London recently, including M&A and private equity heavyweight Phil Cheveley’s exit for Covington & Burling last month after less than two years at the firm. 

Sidley did not respond to a request for comment. 

Recruitment firm Edwards Gibson’s latest analysis of London partner moves – for September and October – recorded a record tally of lateral hires for the period: the 124 documented moves reflected a 27% increase on the cumulative five-year average.