Baker & McKenzie is set to lose a team of antitrust partners in Frankfurt, including the firm's German and European competition head, as the group splits off to launch a new competition boutique.

Practice chief Joerg-Martin Schultze is quitting Bakers along with fellow partners Dominique Wagener, Stephanie Pautke and Johanna Kuebler.

The group will open a new boutique in Frankfurt this September under the name Commeo. The three associates who make up the remainder of Bakers' Frankfurt antitrust practice are expected to join the partners at Commeo, although a final decision has not yet been taken.

The partners share a high-profile list of clients including Shell, Magna, Procter & Gamble and The Body Shop.

Pautke (pictured) said: "We decided to start up our own boutique because the strategic considerations that the firm had for our group did not really fit into our strategy as a team.

"The reasons behind the recent surge in boutique launches are probably that the structure of big firms is clearly marked by a specific strategy that does not always match the strategy of all practice groups. Clients, on the other hand, seem to like lawyers from big international law firms because they have the experience without the large fee structure."

Schultze will be replaced as Bakers' German competition head by Vienna-based partner Andreas Traugott, while Brussels competition head Fiona Carlin is currently acting as head of European competition.

The news comes after Dewey & LeBoeuf's Frankfurt managing partner Hanno Berger's announced his departure from the firm in June along with banking and finance partner Kai-Uwe Steck to launch a new tax boutique.