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

Reed Smith is building out its state attorneys general team, with plans for additional growth in its Washington, D.C., office.

The firm this week brought on Paul Connell, a former Wisconsin deputy attorney general, as a partner in D.C. and Chicago, and Aaron Lancaster as counsel from Baker & Hostetler.

“The firm added me and Aaron this month and over time, as we build this out, I would be surprised if we didn't add more folks,” Connell said. “The arrow for Reed Smith is plainly pointed up, the firm is growing. I think in the next few months, we're going to add 10 lawyers to the D.C. office alone.”

According to ALM data, in 2018 Philadelphia-founded Reed Smith averaged more than 100 lawyers spread across the D.C. region, in its offices on K Street and in Northern Virginia, including global managing partner Alexander Thomas. The firm's website now shows 116 lawyers in those offices.

Connell's long commute between Wisconsin and D.C. and Chicago comes after former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel lost the November 2018 election by 0.65 percent of the vote to Josh Kaul. After the installation of the new Democratic attorney general, Connell stayed on temporarily and talked with law firms around the country in preparation for moving to the private sector.

Connell said Reed Smith was particularly attractive because of its footprint in Chicago and D.C., where he is licensed to practice law. Connell was an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in D.C., for nearly three years before becoming a federal prosecutor in Madison, Wisconsin, where he spent 12 years before joining the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Connell said Reed Smith managing partner Alexander “Sandy” Thomas and state AG team leader Divonne Smoyer were particularly important to his recruitment.

Law firms in D.C. have been investing more attention to state attorneys general work in recent years, with some reason to expect that 2019 will become the most aggressive year yet for state attorneys general litigation given the politics of the moment. Connell traces the uptick to the advent of President Barack Obama's administration and Republican attorneys general responding to an active administrative state. Under President Donald Trump, the script flipped with Democrats going on the attack.

Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 election, Connell said he expects litigation, investigations, and policy work for state attorneys general practices to continue given the likelihood of continuing division among federal lawmakers.

Law Firm Moves, News & Notes

Seth DuCharme has joined Main Justice as counselor to U.S. Attorney General William Barr from the Eastern District of New York, where he was chief of the office's criminal division.

With Barr's letter to lawmakers revealing the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Emmet Flood is expected to leave the White House, where he was the leading lawyer handling Mueller's investigation. Williams & Connolly declined to comment on Flood's potential return to the firm.

Karen Corallo has joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as of counsel from Greenberg Traurig, where she was also of counsel. She joined Greenberg Traurig in 2017 after serving six years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where she was associate chief counsel for enforcement.

Eammon Moran joined LeClairRyan as partner in Washington, D.C., from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, where he was counsel. Moran was previously an associate and counsel at Wilmer for nearly three years, and spent nearly a year and a half at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Moran's addition comes as the firm has lost close to 50 attorneys since the start of the year.

Daniel Gallagher, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner, is returning to Wilmer as a partner. Gallagher is chief legal officer at Mylan, a pharmaceuticals company, and has plans to leave Mylan in April and work from Wilmer's D.C. and New York offices after Labor Day.

Hogan Lovells said this week it added a pair of partners in its D.C. office: Anne Salladin to its international trade practice and Greg Junge to the energy and global regulatory practice.

Salladin was previously special counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Junge was a partner at Van Ness Feldman.

Wiley Rein said this week it added Kevin Rupy as a partner in its telecom, media and technology practice.

Rupy was most recently vice president of law and policy at the U.S. Telecom Association.

Venable added Jay Rosenblum as counsel in its legislative and government affairs practice in Washington, D.C.

He was previously a senior vice president for government affairs and later for human resources at Guardian Life Insurance Co.

Katten Muchin Roseman said this week it added Steven Mindy as a partner in the firm's transactional tax practice in its D.C. office.

Mindy joins Katten's employee benefits and executive compensation team from Alston & Bird, where he was a partner.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld added Virgil Miller as a senior policy adviser in its Washington, D.C., office. Miller was an aide to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-Louisiana, and a staffer on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer promoted 37 attorneys to counsel, including Jan Rybnicek in Washington, D.C.

Rybnicek joined Freshfields' antitrust, competition and trade group in 2015 from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.