Douglas Emhoff, who led Venable’s expansion efforts and its West Coast operations until last week, is swapping firms for bicoastal offices at DLA Piper in Century City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. 

A longtime friendship with Stuart Liner, who announced in July that he’d merge his 60-lawyer Los Angeles entertainment law boutique into DLA Piper, sparked the lateral deal. The career of his spouse—U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California,—prompted Emhoff to base his practice partly in D.C.