Defense lawyer Neil Eggleston has joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner. Photograph courtesy of Kirkland & Ellis.

While the past few weeks have been dominated by moves from government into private practice, this week we’ve got lots of lawyers jumping from one firm to another.

Top white-collar defense lawyer W. Neil Eggleston has landed at Kirkland & Ellis as a partner. He was previously a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton. Eggleston has represented many high-profile clients, including former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in the prosecution of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Eggleston also served in the White House counsel’s office under President Bill Clinton.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has brought on a new co-managing partner for its Washington office: Bill Burck, who came from Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Burck’s practice includes both complex domestic and international disputes, and white-collar criminal work. He will also practice out of the firm’s New York office.

David McIndoe and R. Michael Sweeney Jr., previously co-heads of the commodities trading group at Hunton & Williams, have joined Sutherland Asbill & Brennan as partners.

Steptoe & Johnson welcomed Edward Schwartz and Andrew Lee as partners in its global antitrust and competition practice. Schwartz joined from Shearman & Sterling, and Lee came from White & Case.

Photograph by Christopher Leaman.

The past 36 hours have been a total whirlwind for Ted Olson. After receiving word that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals would issue its ruling Tuesday morning in the Prop 8 case, Olson—one of the lead lawyers in the fight to get the 9th Circuit to deem California’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional—flew from Washington to San Francisco Monday night. He was at the court Tuesday at 10 AM when the decision was issued: a victory for Olson and co-counsel David Boies, along with the same-sex couples they represent. From that point on, Olson’s day was dominated by demands from the press, including an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show last night. He then boarded a plane at 11 PM and landed back in Washington this morning. After a quick stop at home for a shower and a change of clothes, he headed back to his Farragut North office at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

“My job today is to keep my eyes open,” he says.

Olson, one of the country’s best Supreme Court lawyers and former solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration, has never been shy about the fact that he hoped to eventually argue the Prop 8 case at his favorite venue—the US Supreme Court. But the narrowly tailored wording of the California appellate court decision has left many court watchers speculating that the justices will not take up the case as most had expected. The 9th Circuit worded its opinion to apply specifically to the circumstances in California, where same-sex marriage was first legalized and then stricken down again by a voter-approved ban. Because the ruling is not applicable to the entire country, the Supreme Court may be less likely to take the case.

Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli this morning announced another round of buyouts—the fifth since 2003—but this one sounds more like a layoff.

For one, the Post will offer the buyouts to selected individuals. And this time, Brauchli explicitly says, “We may turn down some volunteers if we feel their departure would impair our journalism.”

More than a few Post writers were taken off guard by Brauchli’s buyout alert. Asked last week in chats with reporters if rumors of a buyout were true, he put them down.

“He lied,” says one reporter.

No doubt the Post must reduce its costs. Revenues for the Post Company plunged last year due to declining enrollment in Kaplan, the company’s for-profit college. And the newspaper division continued to lose advertising revenue and readers. In the third quarter of 2011, print advertising revenue was down 13 percent. Daily circulation fell 5.4 percent.

Brauchli said, “It is important that we achieve real savings.”

For veteran reporters, those savings will come by lopping off higher salaries. Brauchli mentioned that “we will continue making tactical hires, so that even as we get smaller, we get stronger.”

In the newsroom, that means hiring younger, less expensive staffers.

Brauchli’s memo was short on details, but he called for two “Town Hall meetings,” one at 11 AM and another at 4:30 today.

He has some explaining to do.

Raju Narisetti was so important to the Washington Post he’s irreplaceable. Reading between the lines, one gets that sense from the memo that went out today from Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli.

“With Raju’s departure,” Brauchli wrote, “we want to designate some people to pick up critical duties that he handled, at least on a temporary basis.”

The memo goes on to name about a dozen people and their “teams” to handle the tasks left undone when Narisetti left this month for the Wall Street Journal. Brauchli hand picked Narisetti to split managing editor duties with Liz Spayd. He’s handled the Post’s digital side since 2009.

The big winners in the post-Narisetti age are Sandy Sugawara and Katharine Zaleski.

Sugawara, who’s been at the Post for decades, began as a beat writer, moved up to become top business editor and, recently, editor of the universal desk. In her broadened role, she and her team will control the play and timing of news across the print and digital pages. Brauchli demands, “When they come looking for news, please work with them to ensure we’re moving fast, either with staff or wire content.”

Zaleski came to the Post from Huffington Post in 2009 to help spread Post stories across social media networks. She’s now executive director of digital news. Post-Narisetti, Brauchli says she “will be the primary contact for all matters pertaining to digital traffic and engagement. . . .” And she will report directly to Brauchli.

As for Narisetti, he will manage digital networks for the Wall Street Journal, where he and Brauchli both once worked.

At this point, no editors to replace him have surfaced, but Sugawara and Zaleski could be prime candidates.

Eli Manning. Photograph courtest of Flickr user angiesix.

How did we not see it coming? How did we not anticipate that Eli Manning would do it again? How could we ignore the reams of evidence at our disposal illustrating Manning’s reliability in big moments? Apparently our national infatuation with Tom Brady and his dreamy hair and his supermodel wife has clouded the fact that nowadays, when the bright lights are on, Manning—not Brady—is the guy you want center stage.

Sure, I know many of you predicted the Giants would win the Super Bowl (at least, many of you are saying that now), but according to the website Gambling911, as late as Saturday night, the Giants were still three-point underdogs at more than 80 percent of the legal sports books in America. In retrospect, that seems so naive.

Let’s start with the most obvious evidence—like the game the two teams played against each other three months ago. The Giants won that meeting by four points, even though it took place in Foxboro and despite the fact that Manning had to orchestrate his air attack without the benefit of starting receiver Hakeem Nicks, who missed the game due to a hamstring injury. (Nicks wound up with ten catches for 109 yards in the Super Bowl.) Even with that shorthanded roster back in November, with a team on the verge of what would turn out to be a mind-numbing four-game losing streak, Manning and the Giants had enough firepower to beat the Patriots.