A few hearts may have skipped a beat this week at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where Seth Waxman, the veteran appellate lawyer, former U.S. solicitor general and titan of the U.S. Supreme Court bar, has practiced since 2001.

On Monday Dickinson Wright, whose Washington, D.C., office is just a block away from Wilmer’s, announced that it had hired Seth Waxman to join the firm in the capital, touting his “outstanding reputation” and government service.