The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200

Shook, Hardy & Bacon is launching a Seattle office with new hire BART EPPENAUER, who will start at the firm on Dec. 1 as the office’s managing partner. Eppenauer, most recently Microsoft’s chief patent counsel, worked as an intellectual property associate at Shook Hardy in the 1990s.

Microsoft has been one of Shook Hardy’s clients since 1999, according to firm chair John Murphy. “Opening an office in Seattle has always been on our radar, not just because of our relationship with Microsoft,” Murphy says. “We’ve had a growing Pacific presence.” Murphy adds that Eppenauer is also a key hire because he has numerous contacts in the software industry beyond Microsoft.

Though Eppenauer will be the only attorney in Seattle when the new office opens next month, Murphy says he is confident the office will grow quickly: “We’ve already had inquiries from inside the firm and from people outside the firm. I cannot give any specific numbers, but I think we will have about 12 attorneys by the end of 2014.”

Murphy sees the office initially focusing on software and technology, but believes a product liability group will develop quickly.

In another notable move, SCOTT HAMMOND, the deputy assistant attorney general for criminal enforcement in the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, is joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Starting in January, Hammond will be a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C., office focusing on criminal antitrust and international cartel matters.

Hammond, who has spent his entire 25-year career at Justice, helped found a leniency program that rewards voluntary disclosure of cartel activity in order to avoid criminal conviction, according to sibling publication Blog of Legal Times. “I wanted to find a home where I could hit the ground running by utilizing my experience expanding the antitrust division’s international cartel program,” Hammond said in a statement.

Gary Spratling, the cochair of Gibson Dunn’s antitrust and trade regulation practice and a colleague of Hammond’s from the DOJ, said in a statement that he believes Hammond’s addition will help make Gibson Dunn the “go-to” firm for cartel defense work.