Herbert Smith Freehills has appointed Kyriakos Fountoukakos as managing partner of its Brussels office. Fountoukakos succeeds Craig Pouncey, who is retiring after 32 years with the firm and 14 years as managing partner.

Fountoukakos has more than two decades of experience in competition law. He joined Herbert Smith Freehills as a partner in 2006, having spent five years as a European Commission official at DG Competition's merger taskforce and référendaire (legal assistant) in the cabinet of the former president of the EU General Court.

He has been advising clients in issues concerning abuse of dominance and merger transactions, particularly in the technology, media and telecommunications, energy/mining, pharmaceutical and consumer sectors, as well as cartel cases, including in automotive parts and financial services. He works extensively across the firm's international network and one of his responsibilities includes managing a dedicated cross-border team based in Tokyo, providing competition law advice to Japanese clients.

"I am deeply honoured to take over the management of the Brussels office and look forward to building on the office's success,” Fountoukakos said in a statement.

Fountoukakos is also an officer of the IBA Antitrust Committee and teaches merger control law at the LLM programme of UCL (London).