Macfarlanes has turned to US firm Akin Gump for the hire of an investment funds partner, not long after taking on a nine-strong City hedge fund boutique.

Simon Thomas, who has been part of Akin Gump’s London funds team for 10 years after joining from Dechert in 2002, joins Macfarlanes after the firm took over specialist hedge fund firm D Harris Co International (DHCI) last year, adding all of its nine City employees to its private equity practice.