Former Slaughter and May partner Sarah Cardell has been appointed as general counsel of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as the new body formed by the merger of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) sets out its leadership team.

Cardell (pictured) joins from Ofgem, where she is currently legal partner of the markets division. She joined the energy regulator in 2011 after three years as a partner at Slaughters.

She has wide-ranging experience as a senior competition lawyer, both within Ofgem and as a partner in the competition group at Slaughters, where she represented a range of clients including the European Commission, the OFT, BHP Billiton, Thomas Cook, Centrica and BUPA.

Cardell is one of two lawyers taking prominent roles at the CMA, with former Clifford Chance (CC) partner Sonya Branch taking on the role of executive director for enforcement. Branch is currently executive director, enforcement and mergers and a member of the board and executive committee at the OFT.

Branch has led the delivery of the entire enforcement and mergers portfolio at the OFT, heading up investigations using its mergers, antitrust, cartels and consumer enforcement powers. She trained at Linklaters and was a corporate partner at CC.

The appointments complete the CMA's senior executive team, following the appointment of Alex Chisholm as chief executive in January. A 'shadow launch' will take place on 1 October.

The news comes after Linklaters partner Gavin Robert and Hogan Lovells London competition head Lesley Ainsworth were among four lawyers joining the Competition Commission in an 18-strong round of new appointments to the regulator earlier this year. The appointments, announced in April, also included Allen & Overy consultant John Wotton and former Hogan Lovells partner Michael Hutchings.