Linklaters is to strengthen its City competition team with the hire of Allen & Overy (A&O) partner Simon Pritchard.

Pritchard, whose recruitment was confirmed at Linklaters' partner conference in Montreux last weekend (20-21 April), has been a partner at A&O since 2009. Before this he was senior director, responsible for mergers at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). His start date with Linklaters has yet to be confirmed.

During his time at the OFT Pritchard played a role deciding which UK transactions should be subject to further inquiry as well as representing the Government in complex EU merger cases. He was involved in more than 140 merger and antitrust cases including four bids for the London Stock Exchange, BSKYB's stake in ITV and the InBev/Anheuser-Busch merger.

His recent experience at A&O includes gaining phase 1 EU clearance for Novartis on its acquisition of Alcon and advising TMX in its proposed merger with the London Stock Exchange.

Before joining the OFT Pritchard worked at both Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, joining the OFT in 2003 from Cleary's Washington office. His departure leaves A&O with four competition partners in London.

Commenting on the hire Linklaters competition chief Michael Cutting said: "I am really pleased that Simon is joining us. Simon is a tremendously talented competition lawyer with a wealth of experience of the OFT and international competition bodies and of private practice."

A&O said in a statement: "Simon Pritchard has decided to leave Allen & Overy. We would like to thank him for the contribution he has made during his time here."

Linklaters partner conference also saw the firm vote on an exclusive alliance with Australia's Allens Arthur Robinson, which will take effect from 1 May, as well as confirming the reappointment of managing partner Simon Davies. Davies and senior partner Robert Elliott also used the conference to give partners final numbers of those affected by the recent partner restructuring and to apologise for the way management handled the process.