Sidley Austin, which entered the Los Angeles legal market in 1980 after acquiring local firm Shutan & Trost, has hired a former federal prosecutor to bolster its office in the city.

The move by Sidley marks its latest lateral hire in Los Angeles, where the firm opened a second outpost in Century City in 2015. In a city teeming with talent of all kinds—former action film star Jean-Claude Van Damme may be in his mid-fifties, but the so-called Muscles from Brussels still struts around town—keeping up with old competitors and new market entrants is of paramount importance.

Before joining Sidley this week, Jean-Claude “J.C.” André served as an assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the criminal appeals section at the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California, which he joined in 2007. For the past four years, he led the office's criminal appeals section in Los Angeles. He will now be a partner in Sidley's vaunted U.S. Supreme Court and appellate practice.