Darren Mitchell is a Partner, Chief Operating Officer at Simmons & Simmons. He possess expertise in leadership, coaching, leadership development, sales management, strategic planning and 5 more skills. Colleagues describe him as "In my role as Regional Managing Partner Continental Europe at the time, I selected Darren for the COO role in spring 2011, and the two of us were one team for the three years to follow. The combination of Lovells and Hogan & Hartson got effective in May 2010, so it was on Darren to make it work on the Continent and beyond. There were two major challenges which you would expect of any merger of that kind: (i) combine and consolidate the so called 'overlap' offices, i.e. our teams in places where each of the two legacy firms had an office, and (ii) adapt the business and operational forces on the CE ground to the new environment. Whilst the managing and operational skills of Darren were outstanding (which is self explanatory, given the further career steps of Darren at Hogan Lovells), his single strength amongst the many which impressed me most were his interpersonal skills. Darren listened. He kept always calm, even under the most severe pressure. He remained balanced. The way he articulated himself never hurt the ones involved, which was not at the expense of clarity and straightforwardness. When decisions of the leadership team unfolded, people weren't unnecessarily surprised rather felt included. Being a team player on the one hand, whilst making things effectively happen on the other made Darren a critically important person in a merger which needed to pay tribute to cultural differences, but at the same time moulded these into something new, the spirit of a truly transatlantic law firm." and "Darren is a proven executive who knows how to execute. I worked closely with Darren for nearly 5 years at the international law firm of Hogan Lovells. As Global CFO and CEO during that time, I had a front row seat to witness Darren’s ability to lead a global organization. Darren is a restructuring expert. He evaluated and restructured the para-legal, discovery and litigation support functions for the European businesses providing services out of low cost locations. He also repeated this for other service areas such as premises and travel support. Darren is expert at project management. He oversaw the design, construction and consolidation of the firm’s London office which had many moving parts over a number of buildings. Darren is a fixer. While not a part of his official portfolio, when issues arose with the implementation of a new accounting system, Darren visited a number of offices most affected to understand and prepare a very successful remediation plan. Darren is a visionary. He led the successful analysis, identification, negotiation and buildout of the Louisville service center. Probably most importantly, Darren is a good team player. He relates well with partners, attorneys and staff at all levels. Darren is an experienced global leader that builds strong teams, develops strategies, and importantly, knows how to execute, and is a pragmatic, calm and likable leader. Any firm would be lucky to have him."