US-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal (SNR) has poached veteran ExxonMobil lawyer Carter Simpson.

Simpson will be based in Washington and serve as counsel to SNR as part of the firm’s energy, antitrust and competition and global service practices, after spending most of his career at the multinational oil and gas company.

Simpson worked most recently as ExxonMobil’s senior counsel for antitrust and trade regulation, directing global antitrust, export control, trade sanctions advice, compliance for the company’s downstream business and foreign corrupt practices act.

Katherine Funk, a member of SNR’s antitrust and competition practice, says: “Carter’s experience counselling a global corporation on all manner of competition issues in jurisdiction around the world places him among the elite lawyers practicing in his disciplines.”

The move comes on the verge of SNR’s merger with UK-based law firm Denton Wilde Sapte.

Clinton Vince, chair of SNR’s global energy practice, comments: “The breadth of our global energy practice, particularly in the light of the pending combination to create SNR Denton, continues to demand the type of expertise Carter has mastered in years of service representing the world’s largest oil company.”