Hogan Lovells announced today that Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, has joined its Litigation, Arbitration and Employment practice as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office. Neal will be Co-Head of Hogan Lovells’ Appellate practice alongside Washington, D.C. partner Cate Stetson.

Morgan Lewis today announced that Alexis Reisin Miller has returned to the firm as a partner in its FDA & Healthcare Practice, resident in Washington, D.C.  Ms. Miller most recently served as regulatory counsel to senior policy officials and science division directors at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She was previously an associate in Morgan Lewis’s FDA and Healthcare Practice from 2006 to 2010 and, before that, served as in-house counsel at a Washington-based biotechnology consulting firm.

International law firm Eversheds has advised SPX Corporation, a global manufacturing and industrial equipment supplier, on its £700m acquisition of CLYDEUNION Pumps.

One of San Antonio’s most prominent law firms, Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison and Tate, Inc., will join Strasburger & Price, LLP to create the city’s fourth largest firm with more than 40 attorneys locally. All current practicing shareholders of Oppenheimer Blend will be joining the combined firm, including the three remaining name shareholders, Stanley Blend, Reese Harrison and John Tate.   Statewide, the combined firm will boast over 210 attorneys making it one of the 20 largest firms in the state.  In San Antonio, the combined firm will be known as Strasburger Price Oppenheimer Blend. The combination will be effective at the end of this month.   The firms will initially remain in their existing office spaces but plan to consolidate into a single office in early 2012.

Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC announced today the expansion of offices into Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama.  Three Alabama attorneys have joined the firm: Michael B. Beers, A. David Fawal and Angela T. Baker.

International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised ABN AMRO Bank N.V. on the agreed sale of its Swiss Private Banking activities to Union Bancaire Privée, UBP SA.