Former O'Melveny & Myers partner Nicolai Schwarz-Gondek is now part of Sidley Austin's private equity practice. He will work as a partner in the firm's Century City office. Schwarz-Gondek handles private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions, including stock and asset acquisitions and divestitures and leveraged and management buyouts.

Murphy & McGonigle, a financial services firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, expanded into the West Coast with the opening of a new San Francisco office. The office will be led by Mauricio S. Beugelmans, who recently joined the firm from Schiff Hardin. Beugelmans represents financial institutions in securities litigation, arbitration, employment and regulatory matters.

John Gibson left Crowell & Moring for DLA Piper, where he will serve as partner. He joins the firm's litigation and regulatory practice and will litigate antitrust, commercial, health care and technology cases. He is based in Los Angeles.

Goodwin Procter's San Francisco office grew with the addition of Karen Ubell as partner. Prior to joining the firm, Ubell spent six years as an attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission, and she also has experience as co-chair of Cooley's blockchain technology and tokenization group. She will work in Goodwin's digital currency and blockchain technology practice.

Oakland-based Wendel Rosen promoted Katherine Kao to partner. Kao works in the firm's litigation and real estate litigation practice. She focuses her practice on civil litigation issues such as trade secret misappropriation, First Amendment issues, employment disputes and probate matters.