Business woman leaping.A few big lateral hires from the government caught my eye on Monday.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison announced that Andrew Finch rejoined the firm as co-chair of the antitrust practice from the Justice Department, where he was a senior official in the Antitrust Division. As principal deputy assistant attorney general and acting assistant attorney general, Finch oversaw dozens of merger reviews, supervised multiple investigations and litigations and negotiated civil and criminal settlements.

McGuireWoods added Rodger Heaton, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois from 2005 to 2009, and more recently as chief of staff to former Illinois Governor Bruce Raun (who lost his reelection bid in 2018 to Democratic challenger J. B. Pritzker.)

He joins the firm's government investigations and white collar litigation department as a partner in Chicago.

Heaton is one of three former federal prosecutors to join McGuireWoods' white collar practice in recent months, along with Washington partner Andrew McBride and Los Angeles partner Kevin Lally. The former Commonwealth's attorney in Richmond, Virginia, Michael Herring, also joined the firm this year.  

Also on Monday, King & Spalding announced that former partner Zack Harmon has rejoined the firm after serving as chief of staff at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Current FBI Director Christopher Wray is also a former King & Spalding partner.)

Harmon returns to the firm's special matters and government investigations team in Washington and will take a leadership role in King & Spalding's national security practice.

Finally, plaintiffs powerhouse Cohen Milstein on Monday nabbed antitrust litigator Dan McCuaig from the Justice Department. 

McCuaig played a key part in the Antitrust Division's successful trial to block the Anthem/Cigna merger, and led the e-book price-fixing investigation against Apple and five major publishers.