Covington & Burling LLP announced that Thomas Barnett, most recently assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's antitrust division, rejoined the firm. Barnett will lead Covington's global antitrust and competition law practice and will work closely with the white-collar practice on criminal antitrust enforcement and investigative matters.

In an e-mail, Citigroup Inc.'s John Barber wrote, "after 14 years at Citigroup and the last nine years leading Citi Private Equity, I will be leaving the firm." Barber did not say why.

Before joining Salomon Smith Barney Inc. in 1995 as a managing director, Barber was managing director and head of equity capital markets at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Later, Barber was a director of Max Re Capital and Max Re until March 2002.

Gerry Walters left J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for the entertainment practice of Revolution Partners LLC in San Francisco. Walters was a managing director and head of the Internet and digital media group at J.P. Morgan. Morgan Keegan & Co. in December bought Revolution Partners, which co-founders Peter Falvey and David Lavallee lead.

William Rosoff, a 25-year mergers and acquisitions veteran, joined the New York office of Cozen O'Connor as a member of the business law department. Rosoff was a partner in the M&A practices at both Davis Polk & Wardwell and O'Melveny & Myers LLP. He was also a senior vice president and general counsel of Marsh & McLennan Cos. and of RJR Nabisco Inc., where he oversaw the splitup of the company.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a private equity investor focused on information-business services and healthcare, named Randy Dobbs as a senior operating executive. Dobbs was CEO of US Investigations Services, an information and security services company. Earlier, he was president and CEO of Philips Medical Systems, North America, and president and chief executive of GE Capital Corp., information technology solutions.

Partner Anthony Haller was named as the leader of Blank Rome LLP's 43-attorney employment, benefits and labor practice group.

Steven Niedelman joined Crowell & Moring LLP as a senior consultant, focusing on food and drug matters in the healthcare group. He was formerly deputy associate commissioner for regulatory operations at the Food and Drug Administration, where he worked for 34 years. Niedelman most recently was an executive vice president of Quintiles Consulting.

Corporate and tax attorney John Ruppert and transactions and finance attorney Michele Rowland joined the Denver office of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP as partners. They arrive from Perkins Coie LLP.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP launched an entertainment and media practice, hiring partners Michael Plonsker, Yakub Hazzard and Mark Passin, associates Lauren Sudar, Rori Silver, Jeanine Wright and some staff. The group comes from Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George LLP in Santa Monica, Calif. Litigators Plonsker and Hazzard served as co-chairs of Dreier's entertainment practice and now have those roles at Robins Kaplan.

Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC hired four attorneys. Michael Kelly arrives as head of the construction law service group, while Laura Friedel joins as a partner in the labor and employment service group. Both are litigators, as is associate Elizabeth Vandesteeg. David Solomon joined as chair of the firm's ESOP service group and a partner in the corporate practice.

Kelly and Vandesteeg practiced at Stein, Ray & Harris LLP, Friedel was with Schiff Hardin LLP and Solomon was with Pedersen & Houpt.

The Miami office of K&L Gates LLP welcomed Juan Carlos Ferrer as a partner in the firm's finance practice. He joins from Harper Meyer Perez Ferrer & Hagen LLP, where he was a founding partner.

Separately, the firm launched a Frankfurt office with partners Mathias Steinen and Frank Thomas, who join from Simmons & Simmons. They will initially focus on corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and finance. K&L Gates launched a Berlin office two years ago and has 40 lawyers across the two offices.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP elected three partners: Avner Ben-Gera in New York, Federico Goudie of Miami and Washington-based litigator Gregory Williams. Ben-Gera is a corporate lawyer covering transactions, while Goudie practices in the international commercial and finance group.

Haynes and Boone LLP named three partners in Dallas: Andy Ehmke, intellectual property; Ian Peck, bankruptcy/business reorganization; and Aimee Minick, business litigation. In New York: Ann Richardson, finance; and Rick Werner, corporate finance. Other partners include IP lawyer Murray Smith of Richardson, Texas; Brandon Jones in Fort Worth, business planning and tax; and Austin, Texas-based Rob Lauer, corporate and franchising.