Longtime U.S. Department of Justice lawyer SAM SHELDON has returned to private practice with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Joining the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office, Sheldon will be in charge of expanding the firm’s health care fraud team over the next few years, according to a Quinn Emanuel press release.

Citing both personal and professional reasons, Sheldon tells The Am Law Daily that he joined Quinn Emanuel because it is a place where he can try cases, which he notes sometimes doesn’t happen as much in private practice.

Quinn Emanuel’s health care practice will be focusing heavily on qui tam cases, representing pharmaceutical companies that are sued by the government, he says. Of a recent trend that has seen numerous Am Law 200 firms boost their health care capacities, Sheldon says, "It’s a beginning. You’re just going to see law firms devoting more and more resources to the practice of health care litigation."

While working at Justice, Sheldon held roles as deputy chief of the criminal fraud division and as head of the health care fraud unit. He has tried more than 20 criminal cases, including the largest Medicare-related health care fraud prosecution against a single U.S. doctor, according to The New York Times.

Earlier in his career, The American Lawyer shed light on a series of clemency-related pro bono cases Sheldon took on as an associate at Cozen O’Connor in San Diego. In one of the cases, Sheldon obtained clemency for Serena Nunn, a woman who had received a mandatory minimum 14-year prison sentence while in college for a minor role in a drug ring. Nunn later finished college, attended law school, and found a job in the public defender’s office in Atlanta.

In other Churn news …

CARLOS SOLE and JEREMY KENNEDY have joined Baker Botts as partners in the energy transactional practice. Based in Houston, both attorneys are making the move from DLA Piper, where they were also partners. Sole and Kennedy will represent Baker’s clients in energy-related projects and transactions in the electric power and oil and gas sectors.

MARY SENNES, a former associate at Stoel Rives, has joined the Minneapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg as of counsel in the firm’s corporate department. Sennes specializes in transactions related to the agriculture, food, and renewable energy industries.

The former head of Weil, Gotshal & Manges’s Boston litigation practice, THOMAS FRONGILLO, who also served as cochair of the firm’s white-collar defense and investigations practice, has left for Fish & Richardson. Frongillo, whose practice focuses on representing clients in criminal prosecutions, corporate and regulatory investigations, and commercial litigation matters, joins as a principal in the Boston office.

In Melbourne, REX MOULE has joined the offices of GrayRobinson as a shareholder. Prior to his arrival, Moule had been a sole practitioner, focusing on wills, trusts, and estates law.

TODD RANSOM, an attorney specializing in leveraged and derivative products as well as brokerage transactions, has moved from an in-house position at Bank of America to the New York office of Haynes and Boone. Joining as a partner, Ransom will be a member of the prime brokerage and equity lending practice group.

After only a year at DLA Piper, a team of four energy partners have returned to former firm Hogan Lovells. STEFAN KRANTZ, KEVIN LIPSON, JOHN LILYESTROM, and CHRISTOPHER SCHINDLER bring back their expertise in matters including regulatory litigation, and natural gas, enforcement and compliance issues. As reported in The Am Law Daily, a fifth partner, Lee Alexander, who also left Hogan Lovells in 2012, will remain at DLA Piper.

Husch Blackwell’s energy group in Springfield, Illinois, has welcomed a new partner. KYLE BARRY, previously a partner at McGuireWoods and vice president of its subsidiary McGuireWoods Consulting, will continue to focus his work on legislation related to the renewable energy industry.

REBECCA WINTHROP is the latest addition to Fulbright & Jaworski. Winthrop, a Los Angeles–based specialist in bankruptcy and insolvency affairs, is now of counsel at her new firm. Most recently she was a shareholder at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

JAMES ALFORD has lateraled to Locke Lord, where he was hired as a partner. Previously a partner with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, Alford’s practice concentrates on renewable energy and infrastructure project development. The attorney will be resident in Locke Lord’s Washington, D.C., office.

Labor and employment firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart has added litigator FRANK TOBIN to its San Diego office. The new shareholder was last a partner at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, taking on a wide range of cases including breach of fiduciary duty, contract dispute, unfair competition, wrongful termination, and trade secret matters.

SAMUEL COOPER has joined the litigation practice at Paul Hastings as a partner in the firm’s Houston office, which opened in April 2012. Prior to this move, Cooper was the global cochair of Baker Botts’s white-collar and corporate investigations group.

The Washington, D.C., arm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr has announced the arrival of two former government lawyers in its financial institutions practice. JEREMY NEWELL, who last worked for the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors, will be handling financial regulatory matters as counsel at his new firm. Also joining Wilmer as counsel is KATRINA CARROLL, last a U.S. Treasury Department assistant director for strategic policy. Carroll’s practice will focus on anti–money laundering and financial sanctions.

The Churn is compiled from law firm releases and announcements. Moves based on our own reporting will note this. Please send all announcements and news releases to [email protected].