Correction, 1/17/13, 12:45 p.m. EST: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the Littler Mendelson office that John Scalia recently joined as a shareholder. It is in Northern Virginia. The information has been corrected in the first paragraph below. We regret the error.

Labor and employment firm Littler Mendelson announced Monday that JOHN SCALIA has joined the firm’s Northern Virginia office as a shareholder. Scalia is making the move from Greenberg Traurig, where he held the same title for the past 12 years.

“At a place like Littler, where all we do is employment, we’re not dictated to by other practice groups, and it takes a lot of the pressure off,” Scalia tells The Am Law Daily. “It’s the same challenge that all other general practice firms have with employment lawyers, who are not able to charge billing rates the same way as other practices.”

With Littler Mendelson, Scalia says he hopes to expand to more national matters such as class actions and wage-and-hour litigation.

Scalia’s father is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who has sat on the nation’s high court since 1986. Among his nine children, John Scalia isn’t the only one to follow in his father’s footsteps. Eugene Scalia, a labor and employment partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., is also one of the justice’s sons. In 2011, Justice Scalia recused himself in a Supreme Court decision to deny review of an Americans With Disabilities Act case in which John served as lead counsel in the lower court, according to sibling publication The National Law Journal.

In other Churn News …

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has welcomed a new partner, JEAN-CLAUDE NAJAR, as international counsel specializing in international arbitration and compliance matters. Based in Paris, Najar will also work from the firm’s other offices, particularly Istanbul. Prior to joining the firm, Najar spent 23 years at General Electric Co., most recently as general counsel for the French operations and senior counsel for Europe.

MONICA WILKINSON is the latest addition to Dykema Gossett’s health care practice in Detroit. Wilkinson last worked as senior vice president, assistant general counsel, and assistant secretary at the Detroit Medical Center. She is joining Dykema Gossett as senior counsel.

SCOTT DEATHERAGE has left Patton Boggs, where he was a partner, to join Gardere Wynne Sewell. Deatherage will work on environmental, energy and greenhouse gas matters as a partner in the firm’s Dallas office.

Hogan Lovells has announced a number of recent hires. CHRISTOPHER WALSH and MITCHELL ZAMOFF have come back to Hogan Lovells as partners in Minneapolis after coleading UnitedHealth Group’s legal department (Two years ago, sibling publication Corporate Counsel covered the pair’s legal work during the passage of the Affordable Care Act). Walsh joins Hogan Lovells’s corporate practice while Zamoff will work as a member of the litigation, arbitration, and employment practice group. Also recently hired is CHARLES CLAPTON, who returns to private practice after serving as the health policy director of the U.S. Senate Committee on health, education, labor, and pensions. Clapton joins the firm’s health care practice group as a partner in Washington, D.C.

FRED BERNSTEIN is joining Katten Muchin Rosenman as a partner in the entertainment and media practice. Once president of Columbia Tri-Star Motion Picture Companies, Bernstein was most recently a partner with Edwards Wildman Palmer.

K&L Gates has gained two new attorneys in MARY KORBY and GREGORY JACKSON, who both join as partners in the firm’s Dallas branch. Korby was previously a partner with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, focusing on representing clients in the chemical, aviation, and biofuel industries. Jackson is joining the firm’s commercial disputes group from Geary, Porter & Donovan, where he was also a partner.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has hired DANIEL CHUNG, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, for its Washington, D.C., office. As a federal prosecutor, Chung worked in the criminal division, where he was a member of the organized crime unit for the last four years. At Gibson Dunn, Chung will be of counsel and a member of the white-collar defense investigations practice.

Another assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division, this time for the Northern District of Illinois, is making a return to private practice. Trial lawyer GREG DEIS is going back to his former firm, Mayer Brown, joining as a partner in the litigation and dispute resolution practice and the white-collar defense and compliance group.

Nixon Peabody has bolstered its public finance practice with LISALEE WELLS in Los Angeles and KATHERINE BAYNES in Rochester, New York. Wells, previously with Fulbright & Jaworski, specializes in public finance matters. Baynes, who started her career at Nixon Peabody, is returning to the firm from DLA Piper. She focuses on infrastructure finance and public finance. Both join as counsel.

ALEXANDER NEMIROFF has joined Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart as a shareholder in the firm’s Philadelphia office. Nemiroff’s practice focuses on employment litigation. He was previously a partner with Jackson Lewis, also in Philadelphia.

Proskauer Rose lost former partner AVRAM MORELL to Pryor Cashman. Morell, an immigration attorney, has joined Pryor Cashman as a partner in New York and brings with him an associate and a paralegal. 

Reed Smith’s global regulatory enforcement group has welcomed new partner TRACY GENESEN, who will be based in San Francisco. Most recently, Genesen was with Kirkland & Ellis, working on regulatory litigation as a partner.

Environmental attorney JOHN ENGLERT has recently lateraled from K&L Gates, where he was a partner, to Saul Ewing. Englert will work with the energy, environment, and utilities practice group as a partner in the firm’s Pittsburgh office.   

Schiff Hardin has hired two new partners and a counsel. LAURA BRUTMAN and DUANE MATHIOWETZ join the firm’s intellectual property group as partners. Brutman makes the move from Dickstein Shapiro and is based in New York. San Francisco–based Mathiowetz joins from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, which he had joined in early 2011 as Howrey dissolved. JOHN AMABILE, last a litigation attorney with Pursley Lowery Meeks, is joining Schiff Hardin’s litigation group as of counsel in the Atlanta office.

Litigator NICOLE DOGWILL is now a partner with San Francisco boutique Shartsis Friese. Last a partner with Winston & Strawn, Dogwill litigates in areas including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, antitrust, and unfair competition.