Kelly Herman, a senior attorney adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, has left the agency for private practice and joined Venable’s international trade group in Washington, the firm announced last week.

Herman, who served in the department’s Customs and Border Protection for 10 years, will be of counsel at the firm. She was previously deputy director of customs at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and helped negotiate and coordinate several trade initiatives including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Middle East Northern Africa Initiative and U.S.-Philippines Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement on customs and trade matters.

In-house Thales lawyer heads to Fried Frank

John Pisa-Relli has left his post as in-house legal adviser at aerospace and defense company Thales to join Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in the District.

Pisa-Relli will be corporate special counsel in the firm’s international trade and investment and aerospace and defense practices. He previously served as a case officer at the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. He will advise clients on compliance with trade regulations.

Finnegan attorneys jump to boutique patent law firm

Elizabeth Burke and Louis Troilo have left District-based intellectual property firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner for the 12-lawyer Tysons Corner patent law firm O’Brien Jones.

Burke was a partner and Toilo was of counsel at Finnegan, one of the region’s largest law firms with nearly 300 of its roughly 400 attorneys in Washington and Reston. Both Burke and Troilo are former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiners with extensive experience in patent procurement and enforcement.