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Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM[/caption] DLA Piper partner Dennis Williams has joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in its corporate practice in New York. “It was just a unique opportunity to join the Kirkland & Ellis team [and] to further expand my client relationships, as well as an opportunity to work with their extensive client base and provide them with my area of expertise,” Williams said. Williams works with health care entities and other related companies, including private equity clients and their portfolio companies on structural, transactional and regulatory enforcement matters. “I’m health care through and through,” said Williams, a former registered critical care nurse at New York Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. While working at the hospital, Williams attended Seton Hall University School of Law, concentrating in health law. In 2008, he joined New York-based Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan as an associate in the firm’s health care law group. Six years later, he made the jump to DLA Piper, where he built out his practice servicing clients in the private equity and health care space. Earlier this year, Williams had a role in advising middle market private equity firm ICV Partners in its acquisition of Outpatient Imaging Affiliates, a provider of outpatient radiology services. At Kirkland, Williams said that he hopes to continue to work with such clients, as well as with Kirkland’s current portfolio of private equity and health care clients. “[Williams] is an outstanding attorney and trusted adviser with a unique understanding of the health care industry,” Jon Ballis, a corporate partner and a member of Kirkland's 15-person global management executive committee, said in a statement. “He is a valuable addition for our clients involved in health care matters. We are thrilled to welcome him to our team.” In May, Kirkland & Ellis brought on Steven Napolitano, co-chair of DLA Piper’s U.S. private equity practice, and Brendan Head, the co-managing partner of its Chicago office, as partners in its private equity group. Other recent DLA Piper departures include intellectual property partner Christina “Tina” Martini, who made the move to McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago on Thursday, rejoining more than 20 former DLA Piper partners that earlier made the jump to the Chicago-based firm. Moving in the other direction, DLA Piper added IP partner Eric Hagen in Los Angeles this week from McDermott. Other U.S. DLA Piper hires in the past month include IP partner Ryan Vann from Baker McKenzie in Chicago; health care regulatory and litigation partner Kristi Kung from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in Washington, D.C.; litigation partner Levi Heath from Barnes & Thornburg in Los Angeles; and transactional partner Craig Lang, who joined in Silicon Valley from an in-house role at Oak Investment Partners.