Fountain Court has seen its second silk departure this year, with Veronique Buehrlen QC leaving the set to join Keating Chambers.

Buehrlen left Fountain Court last week after 20 years at the chambers. She was called to the Bar in 1991 and took silk last year.

Buehrlen's practice focuses on commercial litigation and international arbitration, with a particular emphasis on complex energy disputes, and financial, insurance, civil fraud and joint venture and shareholder disputes.

The news follows the departure of Craig Orr QC from Fountain Court in February this year for One Essex Court. Orr was called to the Bar in 1986 and took silk in 2006. He specialises in banking and finance matters.

Fountain Court's head of chambers, Timothy Dutton QC (pictured), said: "Veronique wanted to do construction and oil work, and Keating do construction and some energy work, so she would like to carve out a niche there. Craig, who left us earlier this year, left for different reasons.

"The silk market is competitive at the junior end and if you want to develop a particular specialist niche area this sometimes means moving to a set such as Keating which does construction, just as other specialists have moved to Fountain Court, for example Charles Bear QC and Mark Simpson QC who moved to us."

Bear joined Fountain Court in 2006 while Simpson joined in 2002.