Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has hired former Shearman & Sterling competition partner Trevor Soames in Brussels.

His start date at the company is not yet known.

Legal Week reported in September that Brussels-based Soames was in talks to join Quinn alongside fellow Shearman partners Stephen Mavroghenis and Miguel Rato.

Mavroghenis and Rato opted to stay with Shearman but Soames left the firm in October.

The three joined Shearman in February 2011 from US firm Howrey, a month before it collapsed.

Soames was previously head of Howrey's Brussels office and specialises in contentious cases covering a range of antitrust work including mergers, monopolisation, state aid and cartel investigations in Europe and the US.

Quinn's managing partner, John Quinn, said: "A fast-growing part of our practice concerns cross-border antitrust matters, including government investigations and litigation. Adding an acknowledged leader like Trevor is a big plus for the many multinational companies we represent."

Quinn launched in Brussels in February 2014. It currently has two partners based there: European competition head Nadine Herrmann, who is managing partner of the office and divides her time between Hamburg and Brussels; and competition partner Boris Bronfentrinker, who joined from claimant firm Hausfeld & Co in October 2014. Herrmann joined Quinn in 2012 from A&O, where she was a partner.

In Europe, Quinn also has offices in Paris, Mannheim, Munich, Zurich and Moscow as well as London.

Quinn has been in expansion mode in Europe this year, opening its first Swiss base in May. The firm relocated corporate investigations partner Thomas Werlen to head the office in Zurich, which will focus on international dispute resolution.

In London the firm has been on a hiring spree, most recently adding Addleshaw Goddard litigation partner Mark Hastings.

In September, Quinn hired Macfarlanes financial services head David Berman. His hire came after the litigation leader hired Covington & Burling partner and former Serious Fraud Office prosecutor Robert Amaee in August, to launch a new London white-collar and corporate investigations practice.

The same month, however, two of its Moscow arbitration partners – Ivan Marisin and Vasily Kuznetsov – departed the firm for Baker Botts.

Other recruits include Herbert Smith Freehills construction partner James Bremen in June, Clyde & Co litigation partner Paul Friedman in February, and DLA Piper's UK competition head Kate Vernon in March.