Pinsent Masons has hired Jones Day competition partner Alan Davis as head of its European Union and competition practice.

He replaces Guy Lougher, who will now focus on leading Pinsents' Brexit advisory team, as well as fee-earning. Davis, who previously worked for Pinsents for 11 years before joining Jones Day in February 2015, will also be a key member of the Brexit team.

Lougher said: "Brexit has given us cause to further consider how we should expand our international practice from a strategic perspective, and Alan will play a vital role in that."

Legal Week reported in August last year that Pinsents was exploring launching an office in EU member state Dublin. It already has an office in Belfast as a result of its 2012 merger with McGrigors.

Lougher added that the UK's competition watchdog is likely to be busier post-Brexit, thus throwing up more work for law firms. "The Competition and Markets Authority will have a new CEO in the near future and our expectation is that it will become more active. It is also likely to have a more significant and proactive role to play both from the perspective of investigations and merger control in a post-Brexit environment."

Davis trained at Irish firm Eugene F Collins before joining the European Commission in Brussels as a consultant for a year. He focuses on areas including cartel investigations, and Competition Commission market investigations. He acts in proceedings before bodies such as the European Commission, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

He previously advised the UK member banks of MasterCard on the UK and EU antitrust investigations of credit card interchange fees, and has acted on a number of recent UK civil and criminal cartel investigations.