Washington Wrap is a weekly look at the biggest legal industry news and Big Law moves shaping the legal business in Washington, D.C. Send tips and lateral moves to Ryan Lovelace at [email protected].

The release of the 2018 Am Law 200 rankings this week revealed that Second Hundred firms in Washington, D.C., thrived, while the full Second Hundred saw gross revenue, profits per partner, and revenue per lawyer diminish.

No member of Washington's class of Second Hundred firms saw partner profits decline. Arent Fox, emblematic of D.C. firms' success, churned out yet another year profit growth, as it has every year since 2009.

The group's strong performance, alongside the revenue growth evident among Am Law 100 firms in the city, has kept Washington a “destination market,” as Michael McKenney, D.C.-based managing director of Citi Private Bank's Law Firm Group, described it earlier this year.

Law Firm Moves, News, and Notes:

No partner move got more attention this week than Abbe Lowell's decision to take his practice to Winston & Strawn, which recruited him from Norton Rose Fulbright.

A legacy Chadbourne & Parke partner who splits his time between New York and Washington, Lowell is best-known these days for his representation of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, in the ongoing probes into Russian interference into the 2016 elections.

Lowell is far from the first lawyer over the past year to depart Norton Rose for Winston, which recruited eight infrastructure and energy lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright in February, including three partners and one of counsel in Washington. Winston also poached 10 New York partners from Norton Rose in the first weeks after the merger in 2017.

Speaking of departures from Norton Rose Fulbright, Reed Smith raided a platoon of 14 lawyers from Norton Rose this week.

The new Reed Smith team will build up the firm's life sciences health industry group in Washington and New York, and spawn an office in Austin, Texas. The group will be led by Rick Robinson, who was previously the global head of life sciences and health care at Norton Rose, in Washington.

Snell & Wilmer lured Ivan B. Knauer to the firm's Salt Lake City office from the Washington, D.C., offices of Pepper Hamilton.

Knauer will work as a partner in Snell & Wilmer's commercial litigation practice group in Utah and spend some time in D.C. He previously co-led the securities and financial services enforcement group at Pepper Hamilton.

After 24 years in D.C., Knauer told The American Lawyer this week, he has no intention of “skiing off into the sunset” but was ready for a change.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin appointed Thomas Feddo, a Washington-based partner at Alston & Bird, as U.S. Treasury deputy assistant secretary for investment security.

Feddo will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Feddo joined Alston & Bird in 2016 from the Treasury Department, where he had spent seven years in the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Morris, Manning & Martin's 2018 expansion in Washington continued this week, with the addition of Christina Hassan to the firm's hospitality practice group as a partner.

Hassan comes from Katten Muchin Rosenman, and will join a D.C. office that last month added 11 attorneys and patent agents alongside seven new staff members according to the firm.

“Christina is a seasoned hospitality lawyer and her thoughtful and practical approach to deals makes her a great asset to MMM,” said Tom Gryboski, chair of the hospitality practice group. “Her robust expertise working with lifestyle and boutique hotels also fits perfectly in our national practice at the firm.”

Robert Bennett is leaving the partnership at Hogan Lovells and joining Schertler & Onorato in Washington as senior counsel on June 1.

Bennett told The National Law Journal's Ellis Kim his decision was motivated by his desire to represent more individuals—as opposed to companies—and to try more cases before he retires from the law.

Greenspoon Marder, a Florida-based firm, purchased The Liaison Group, a Washington lobbying firm pushing for pro-marijuana legislation on behalf of the growing marijuana industry.

The Liaison Group is led by Saphira Galoob, who said in a statement she thinks Greenspoon Marder's acquisition will help the budding cannabis industry thrive.

Gerry Greenspoon, co-founder of Greenspoon Marder, told ALM this week that the purchase of the pro-pot pushing enterprise represented “a perfect fit in the next step in where we have to go.”

O'Melveny & Myers is adding former senior Justice Department prosecutor Ben Singer as a partner in the firm's Washington office.

Singer spent nine years at the Justice Department, but he said he decided to leave because he thought the time was right and he could not pass up an “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” at O'Melveny & Myers.

Singer left work as chief of the Securities and Financial Fraud Unit of the DOJ's Criminal Division on May 18. He had responsibility for managing 50 federal prosecutors investigating complex fraud cases and previously served as head of the Health Care Fraud Unit.

He will begin work at O'Melveny & Myers' white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice on July 1.