Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP) head of EU and competition David Harrison has left to join Mayer Brown in London as a partner after a string of other senior departures. 

BLP has appointed London EU and competition partner Andrew Hockley as its new head of antitrust and competition effective May 1. Hockley joined BLP as partner in 2010. Prior to that, he worked as competition counsel for BP for three years.

Harrison has been in his role at BLP for a decade. He joined to establish its stand-alone competition practice. Previously, he was a partner at Allen & Overy for seven years.

At Mayer Brown, he will also co-lead the European antitrust and competition team alongside Jens Peter Schmidt in Brussels, and will become one of the group leaders of the global antitrust practice.

Mayer Brown disputes leader David Allen said:

"David is a considerably accomplished and experienced competition lawyer and his arrival will strengthen our ability to provide clients will the very best legal advice in this area."

Commenting on his appointment, Hockley said:

"This is an exciting time to be working in this field; competition and regulatory risk continues to be high on the corporate agenda, and antitrust litigation is picking up real pace in the UK right now."

The news comes after former BLP's head of advocacy, Stuart Isaacs QC, left to join King & Spalding as a partner in January.

His exit followed a series of other senior BLP departures in 2014 including head of arbitration Nicholas Fletcher QC, who left for 4 New Square in November, finance head Matthew Kellett, who left in October to join accounting giant EY, and head of restructuring and insolvency Ben Larkin, who quit BLP in February for Jones Day.