Clifford Chance, the world's largest law firm by revenue, has strengthened its competition litigation practice with the hire of a senior lawyer from the Office of Fair Trading.

Omar Yaqub, director of litigation at the consumer watchdog, will join the firm in January, Clifford Chance announced today.

Mr Yaqub, who qualified as a barrister in 1999 and previously worked for the Treasury Solicitor's Department, spent six years at the OFT, including the past four as head of its litigation unit.

He joins Elizabeth Morony and Luke Tolaini as a partner in the firm's London antitrust litigation group, which represents clients before courts in the UK, US and Europe.

Ms Morony said: "We are delighted to welcome Omar to the team. His experience at the OFT will be a real benefit to clients across a broad range of industries and reflects the growing importance of having a specialist antitrust litigation practice such as ours to handle these issues."

Mr Yaqub said: "I am absolutely delighted to be joining a firm that is a leader in antitrust litigation and look forward to contributing my experience to the team."

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