Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has seen the departure of high-profile international arbitration head Jan Paulsson, as competition partner Andrea Gomes da Silva prepares to take up a nine-month secondment at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Paulsson, who joined the firm in 1989 and has been the head of Freshfields' international arbitration group for around 20 years, is top-ranked by Chambers and Partners for global arbitration and public international law.

He is currently president of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, as well as vice-president of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

It understood that he has left Freshfields to focus on his career as an arbitrator and academic, but will continue to contribute to work on future mandates at the firm.

Early last year he was appointed alongside Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC of 20 Essex Street and Blackstone Chambers' Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC to advise the Government of Bahrain on human rights reforms following the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Separately, competition partner Andrea Gomes da Silva is set to spend nine months on secondment at the OFT, advising on the development of the new Competition and Markets Authority.

Gomes da Silva, who will begin her secondment this May, will be working on the development of legal and procedural guidance for the CMA – the new body set to be formed by the combination of the OFT with the Competition Commission next year.

Gomes da Silva commented: "The creation of the CMA is the biggest single change to the country's competition law in decades and this secondment is a fantastic hands-on opportunity for me to be involved in that change from the inside."

She will not be responsible for any work relating to OFT cases or investigations, but will take on OFT senior policy director Jackie Holland's role in leading the OFT's input into the CMA guidance project, while Holland takes a short sabbatical from aspects of her role from May to September.

Holland will continue in her roles as the OFT's procedural adjudicator for CA98 cases and as one of the OFT's decision-makers on Phase I mergers during this period.