King & Spalding is set to launch a competition practice in London with the hire of Hogan Lovells of counsel Suzanne Rab.

Rab, who joins King & Spalding this week as a partner, has advised on cartel, market and merger control investigations in the UK and across Europe.

She has a particular focus on transactional and behavioral competition matters, including in proceedings before UK competition authorities, UK sector regulators and the European Commission.

Formerly a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the move reunites her with former legacy Hogan & Hartson London head Garry Pegg, now co-head of King & Spalding's London office.

King & Spalding's cartel investigation chief Kevin Sullivan said: "Our strength in cartel work – which includes both criminal and civil matters involving alleged price-fixing and market allocation – combined with Suzanne's varied cartel experience enables us to provide our clients in Europe or the United States with comprehensive counsel on their high-stakes competition matters."

Global antitrust chief Jeffrey Spigel added: "Suzanne's arrival is an exciting event for the global competition practice. It marks our commitment to expanding the practice to better serve clients throughout Europe and the world."

Most recently, King & Spalding boosted its London corporate practice with the hire of Martin Hunt from US firm Bracewell & Giuliani.