International law firm Simmons & Simmons has appointed Kate Curneen as a partner in its financial-markets team in Dublin.

Curneen, who joins the firm from DLA Piper, has experience in advising domestic and international clients on property and development financing, acquisition financing, fund financing, and asset-based lending.

Her experience also includes distressed and non-performing loan portfolios, where she has advised sellers, buyers, and financiers on various restructuring, work-out, and refinancing scenarios.

‘Next stage of growth’

Simmons & Simmons adds that Curneen’s “comprehensive” understanding of regulatory matters, having previously been seconded to both a bank and a loan servicer, will further enhance the firm's capabilities in consumer and SME lending, authorisation-and-compliance issues, passporting, credit servicing, and arrears resolution.

Rachel Stanton (small picture), who heads Simmons & Simmons’s Irish office, said that Curneen’s expertise and relationships in the domestic and international market would “play a pivotal role in the next stage of our growth in Ireland”.

The new partner’s arrival coincides with the firm’s upcoming move to new offices at One Molesworth Street.