“If there’s one thing this world needs more of, it’s lawyers,” quips Press Secretary D.J. O’Brien, who departs Rep. Kay Granger’s (R-Texas) office next month to — you guessed it — attend law school at Wake Forest University.

O’Brien, a five-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is an alumnus of the press shops of then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) and Rep. David Vitter (R-La.).

The 27-year-old Little Rock, Ark., native holds a bachelor’s in history and political science from Vanderbilt University.

Cassidy’s Catches. The government relations firm Cassidy & Associates has snagged two longtime Hill aides.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) chief of staff, Gregg Hartley, will join the firm in June as chief operating officer.

Hartley, who first signed up with Blunt when the Show Me State Congressman was Missouri’s secretary of state, has also served in the office of then-Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft (R).

For the past six years Hartley has worked in Blunt’s Washington operation.

New Director of Communications Aimee Steel arrives at Cassidy after a stint as press secretary to Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Steel, who served as Toomey’s 2002 campaign spinner, also worked as deputy press secretary for another Keystone State lawmaker, Sen. Arlen Specter (R).

A 1996 graduate of Pennsylvania’s Shippensburg University, Steel received a bachelor’s in communications.

The 28-year-old Steel, who hails from Fort Washington, Pa., has also spent time in the offices of Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) and then-Rep. Jon Fox (R-Pa.).

Hoya Hire. A recent Georgetown University graduate, Kara Ethier, holds the distinction of being the inaugural legislative correspondent hired in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-Calif.) office — which just added the position to the operation.

The government major, who spent the fall semester interning for the Golden State Congressman, is a native of Knoxville, Tenn.