Nancy Libin has left Jenner & Block, where she led the data privacy and cybersecurity practice, to join Davis Wright Tremaine as co-chair of the firm's technology and privacy and security practice in Washington, D.C.

Libin will replace Christin McMeley, a current chair of the group, who is leaving the firm in October for Comcast, Davis Wright said.

Libin said by phone Monday that she hadn't been looking to leave Jenner & Block before she was approached about the move over the summer. “Davis Wright Tremaine offered an opportunity that I really could not pass up,” she said. “It is investing and growing the technology and privacy and security practice at a huge clip.”

She declined to say whether others from Jenner would be following her to Davis Wright, but noted that the firm is looking to expand on the West Coast, where it has offices in San Francisco and Seattle.

“Nancy and I will work closely to keep our focus on providing integrated services to our clients, including global technology companies, health care providers, media and communications firms, financial services companies—and pretty much any other company that relies on technology in its business model,” said Wendy Kearns, a Seattle-based partner who will serve as practice co-chair with Libin, in a statement.

Libin would not identify specific clients that would make the move with her, but said it was important for her practice to have a co-chair in Washington because of the “tremendous amount” of regulatory activity and policy being crafted in D.C.

Prior to her time at Jenner, Libin served as the chief privacy and civil liberties officer at the Justice Department from June 2009 to August 2012, during President Barack Obama's first term in office. She has also worked as a counsel to then-Sen. Joe Biden on the Judiciary Committee and worked with former Secretary of State John Kerry's failed 2004 presidential campaign.

Libin's hire follows two other notable arrivals to Davis Wright's cybersecurity and data practice in recent weeks. Christopher Ott joined the firm over the summer from the Justice Department, where he was most recently supervisory counterintelligence and cyber counsel for the National Security Division. Helen Goff Foster came more recently from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which she accused of mismanagement in a June 2018 letter asserting she was pushed out for taking action as a whistleblower.