On Dec. 12, veteran bankruptcy lawyer James Sprayregen will return to Kirkland & Ellis LLP from Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he spent almost three years. Sprayregen was a managing director and co-chief of the Americas restructuring group at Goldman. He previously spent 16 years with Kirkland and returns as a partner in the bankruptcy and restructuring practice.

New York managing director John Plaster was named co-head of alternative energy banking at Barclays Capital alongside Menlo Park, Calif.-based managing director Amy Smith. They will work closely with Santino Basile and Carl Weatherley-White, who run the new energy structured finance group within debt capital markets.

Plaster was most recently a managing director in global finance, overseeing the power sector in equity capital markets and leveraged finance. Plaster came to Barclays Capital as part of its acquisition of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s North American investment banking and capital markets businesses. He joined Lehman in 1996.

BarCap also announced its leadership team for mergers and acquisitions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. The M&A heads are Barry Boniface, communications; James Ben, consumer; Rich Bonaventura and Brad Whitman, co-heads of financial institutions M&A; Drew Burch, healthcare; Scott Mohr, industrial; Greg Dalvito, media; Gary Posternack, natural resources; John Lange, power M&A and power corporate; Lisa Beeson, real estate; Ken Siegel, retail; Drago Rajkovic, technology; and Hal Edelman, tax and structuring. Also, Mark Shapiro was named head of restructuring and finance, and Gary Matt was appointed head of exclusive sales.

Additionally, Udi Margulies became head of M&A for Latin America. Jitesh Gadhia and Simon Hargreaves are co-heads of M&A for EMEA, reporting to John Winter, head of investment banking for EMEA, and to Paul Parker, chairman and head of global M&A. Jason Rynbeck remains as head of M&A for Asia Pacific, while Frank Hancock remains as head of M&A for India.

Hogan & Hartson LLP announced that Sanford Litvack rejoined the firm in New York. Litvack left the firm following his appointment to assist the Justice Department's antitrust division in its investigation of the proposed Google Inc.-Yahoo Inc. Web search agreement.

Litvack will resume his practice focused on antitrust litigation, cartel investigations, internal investigations, commercial litigation, dispute resolution and corporate governance.

Duane Morris LLP hired a 19-lawyer construction practice from Thelen LLP in New York. The team is led by partners Allen Ross, Frederick Cohen, Arthur Silverman and Richard Dyer. Other partners include Michael Chartan, Dennis Konner, Kenneth Lazaruk and John Wojak Jr.

Special counsel include Lawrence Chiarelli, Charles Fastenberg and Michael Hogan. The associates are Jose Aquino, Michael Davis, Meghan DiPerna, James Lotito, Brian Markowitz, Joseph Mascia and Jessica Singh.

Bryan Cave LLP opened a Paris office, led by partners Kathie Claret, Jilali Maazouz and Joseph Smallhoover. Joining them are associates Sarah Delon-Bouquet, Fanny Kaufman, Franck Maréchal, Aude Pellegrin and Cécile Terret. The office will cover commercial transactions, corporate, finance, mergers and acquisitions, labor, trade regulation, intellectual property, antitrust, litigation, arbitration and private client matters.

New York litigator Kevin Toner was enlisted as a partner at Patton Boggs LLP. Toner was a partner at Heller Ehrman LLP and will focus on complex commercial disputes, antitrust and securities litigation, corporate governance and alternative dispute resolution.

Latham & Watkins LLP said litigator Franklin Kang joined the firm as counsel in Los Angeles, focusing on complex patent cases. Kang hails from Sidley Austin LLP, where he was counsel in the intellectual property litigation group.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP tapped David Fong as a partner in the real estate practice. He comes to the firm from Thelen LLP and will reside in Los Angeles.

Dechert LLP hired Edward Pittman for its financial services practice group as counsel in Washington. Pittman was most recently senior counsel at Thelen LLP. He advises broker-dealers and money managers.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP promoted Eric Hirsch and Michael Rhee to special counsel. Hirsch leads the litigation department's electronic discovery practice in New York. Rhee is a real estate lawyer.

Additionally, Greg Gnall joined the corporate department as special counsel specializing in securities regulation, including broker-dealer regulation and enforcement. He arrived from White & Case LLP.