UPDATE 1-More Biden officials land law firm jobs as Trump takes office

Adds more hires in paragraphs 5 and 6

By David Thomas

Jan 21 (Reuters) - The first full day of the new Trump administration brought a wave of new hires by U.S. law firms adding outgoing Biden officials to their ranks.

— Steven Dettelbach, who served as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will rejoin BakerHostetler in April and will lead its 400-lawyer litigation practice group beginning in 2026, the firm said Monday.

— Nicholas Folly, who served as deputy chief of the criminal division in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, has returned to Debevoise & Plimpton as a counsel in its San Francisco office. His boss, former Manhattan U.S. attorney Damian Williams, joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison earlier this month.

— Andrew Dean, who co-led the assets management unit at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in New York.

— Edward Duffy, a senior litigation counsel for the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division who led the government's antitrust lawsuit against Visa, has joined Baker Botts as a partner in Washington.

— Varun Behl, a federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, rejoined U.S. law firm Hueston Hennigan as a counsel.

— Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, resigned from government service on Friday.

The moves follow weeks of earlier law firm hires of agency appointees and civil servants leaving government as Democratic former President Joe Biden prepared to leave office ahead of the new Republican administration.

Last week a string of outgoing government lawyers joined firms, including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; King & Spalding; and Paul Weiss; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Rhonda Schmidtlein, a Democrat who served as a commissioner on the U.S. International Trade Commission for more than a decade, is leaving the agency to join Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, the firm said on Thursday.