Shoosmiths has opened an office in Brussels, the firm’s first outside of the U.K., and has hired a competition law veteran to head the operation.

Kiran Desai joins the firm from EY Law, where he was a partner for over three years as part of the EU competition team, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that Desai spent 28 years at Mayer Brown, where he was managing partner of the Brussels office.