Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has bulked up its competition arm with a new partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and a senior in-house counsel from BG Group.

Elaine Whiteford joined BLP's City competition, European Union and trade group this week from her role at Freshfields, where she was of counsel. Whiteford specialises in competition litigation and is also a qualified barrister.

Meanwhile, BG Group senior principal counsel Stuart Davis has joined the firm as a senior competition lawyer in the managed legal services team at Thames Water in Reading, where lawyers are not able to make partner.

BLP competition group 
head David Harrison commented: "It has always been a strategic aim of ours to add a specialist competition litigator to the team. Elaine is the right fit in terms of her outstanding experience in a number of major cartel damages cases as well as other complex EU litigation."

"We have also been increasingly building on our utilities capability and Stuart brings a wealth of in-house experience that he can apply to our managed legal services arm as we continue to develop it."

Whiteford's hire takes the total number of competition partners at the firm to five, while Davis takes the lawyer count in the managed legal services team to 12.

BLP struck a deal with Thames Water last year that saw the utility provider transfer the bulk of its in-house legal team to the City law firm, understood to be worth around £5m in revenue to BLP annually.

The news comes as BLP has taken its first step towards a full in-house advocacy offering for clients with Legal Week reporting last month that the firm was bringing in South Square's Stuart Isaacs QC to launch the venture.