Shearman & Sterling‘s only London competition partner Chris Bright and former Slaughter and May partner Laura Carstensen have both won appoint-ments to the Competition Commission.

It is understood that Bright will leave the Shearman partnership next year to take up his membership at the commission, but he will remain at the firm as a part-time independent consultant on areas including lateral hiring and marketing. He will be unable to advise on UK competition matters for conflict reasons.

Bright joined Shearman in 2001 from Clifford Chance, prior to which he was a partner at Linklaters. Last September he took on a two-day-a-month, non-executive directorship at Jersey’s Competition and Regulatory Authority.

Carstensen, one of the key figures on Slaughters’ work-life balance committee, famously left the firm, the City and the law in 2003 for lifestyle reasons. She was one of the stars of Slaughters’ competition practice, advising on the Carlton-Granada merger and the battle for Safeway.

It is understood that the appointments, which are for an eight-year term, were made some weeks ago, but that the Competition Commission was unable to unveil them on the eve of the election.

Bright declined to comment. Carstensen was unavailable for comment.