Barclays' head of litigation, investigations and regulatory enforcement for Europe and the Middle East (EME) is to join the London office of Boies Schiller Flexner.

Tracey Dovaston will start as a partner in January 2020 as part of the firm's push to build its regulatory, investigations and litigation practice.

Dovaston has been the bank's EME head of litigation, investigations and regulatory enforcement for close to five years. She trained and qualified as a solicitor at Herbert Smith Freehills, where she stayed for 10 years before joining GE Capital in 2005. She was GE's chief compliance officer between 2007 and 2009.

She later became GE's head of litigation and investigations for Europe for more than five years, before joining Barclays.

Dovaston said Boies Schiller's disputes practice was well known to her, adding: "Five years at Barclays has given me a wealth of experience managing high-profile banking litigation, investigations and enforcement matters. [Boies Schiller's] global client base and client mandates are the perfect match for that experience."

Boies Schiller's London office launched in 2014, headed by Natasha Harrison. Since then, it has made a number of "selective" hires, including HSF's former global head of public international law Dominic Roughton, as well as investigations and white-collar crime partner Matt Getz from Debevoise & Plimpton, and arbitration partner Kenneth Beale from WilmerHale.