Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's sole Austria competition partner, Axel Reidlinger, has left the firm to set up his own boutique.

Reidlinger's departure will leave Freshfields' Vienna base with 13 partners, according to the firm's website, but none in its antitrust, competition and trade practice. The office does, however, have five associates in the practice.

Reidlinger has acted for clients on a variety of antitrust cases before the Austrian competition authorities, as well as major competition actions in central and eastern Europe.

He is reported to be setting up his new firm, Reidlinger Schatzmann Attorneys-at-Law, along with Hanno Schatzmann, co-founder of local firm Gassauer-Fleissner Rechtsanwalte.

A Freshfields' spokesperson said Berlin competition partner Thomas Lubbig would "work alongside" the Vienna competition team for an interim period.

He added that the firm was "planning to strengthen" its six-strong, including Lubbig, antitrust competition and trade team further in the near future, "consistent with our commitment to providing top-quality ACT advice for our clients out of Vienna".

Reidlinger's boutique is the third to be set up by a former Freshfields partner since April last year when former London head of arbitration Constantine Partasides and two other arbitration partners from the firm were part of a group that left to set up arbitration boutique Three Crowns.

Another disputes boutique was established by former Moscow disputes head Maxim Kulkov in March.

News of Reidlinger's exit comes as three other partners have left Freshfields' London office. Corporate partners Matthew Cosans and Karen Fountain both departed at the end of April, along with intellectual property partner Chris Forsyth.

Cosans had led for the firm on deals such as Barclays' takeover of ING Direct UK in 2012, while Fountain had also worked with the bank on the sale of 26 private finance initiative and public private partnership projects managed by Barclays' infrastructure funds in the same year.