White & Case has hired Macfarlanes head of competition, Marc Israel, in London. Israel will join the US firm's global competition practice as a partner.

His start date is yet to be confirmed.

Israel departs the UK firm, where he also led its cross-departmental competition litigation team, after 15 years. He made partner at Macfarlanes in 2004 and was appointed competition head in 2006, having previously trained at Slaughter and May.

His exit comes after Macfarlanes' financial services head David Berman resigned in September, to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in London as head of regulatory and financial services. Berman will begin his role at Quinn in January 2017.

Israel's focus is on M&A and private equity non-contentious competition matters, as well as cartel, investigations and antitrust litigation.

Macfarlanes competition partner Malcolm Walton replaces him in the role, effective immediately.

The hire comes as White & Case seeks to ramp up its lawyer headcount in London, along with New York, as part of its 2020 strategy.

London managing partner Oliver Brettle said: "Our 2020 strategy includes a focus on London and on M&A and disputes, which has stimulated the need for more competition law expertise on the ground in London, especially merger control work."

White & Case Europe and Middle East (EMEA) competition head Mark Powell added: "Marc's addition will provide exciting synergies between our competition, disputes and our M&A/private equity teams in London and across EMEA."

In an interview with Legal Week in November last year, chairman Hugh Verrier said White & Case plans to boost lawyer count in the City from roughly 350 to more than 500 within five years, with its New York office expected to house around the same number of lawyers.

Since then, the firm has added around 70 lawyers to its City base to date. Its current headcount stands at 420.

The firm, currently one of the most international US players with less than a third of its lawyers based in its homeland, also wants to increase the percentage of its lawyers inside America

This year, the firm has hired a number of other high profile partners in London. Most recently, it recruited Clifford Chance global banking co-head Patrick Sarch last month. In September, it also added Michael Wistow from Berwin Leighton Paisner to co-head the US firm's EUME tax practice.

Macfarlanes declined to comment.