(Reuters) - Dentons has tapped a pair of lobbyists from McGuireWoods' consulting arm whose clients have included Amazon and TripAdvisor, boosting its public policy group ahead of the next political transition in Washington, D.C.

With a growing emerging technologies practice, Michael Drobac and Gregory Walden said they were drawn to the world's largest firm by its international reach and its growth in areas that are important for their practice.

In particular, they contrasted Dentons' continued growth overseas with McGuireWoods' decision to close its Brussels office -- its only outpost on the main European continent -- in 2019. The closure of that Brussels office was "difficult for us," Drobac said.

"You can't find any firms with Dentons' breadth and depth that fit with our client base," Walden said.

Drobac and Walden joined Dentons' public policy practice in Washington as a principal and partner, respectively, the firm said Monday. A third member of their team at McGuireWoods Consulting is expected to join Dentons next week, Drobac said.

Drobac was previously head of government affairs at Netflix, where he established and first ran the streaming giant's D.C. office, while Walden served as the chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration.

In their emerging technologies practice, they both advise and lobby on issues relating to drones and autonomous vehicles, ecommerce, and internet platforms. They are both registered lobbyists whose clients this year have included Amazon and TripAdvisor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org database.

Drobac said they're in the process of transitioning their clients from McGuireWoods to Dentons. Already, two of their drone-related clients -- the Small UAV Coalition and Drone Alliance Europe -- have signed on with their new firm, Drobac said.

Their recruitment to Dentons comes as law firms have been stocking up on attorneys and lobbyists with government backgrounds in the run-up to Election Day. Drobac was a legislative aide to three Republican U.S. Senators, while Walden was a transition ethics counsel to President-elect George W. Bush.

On Monday, King & Spalding welcomed Ethan Davis, the acting head of the Justice Department's civil division, back into the fold. Earlier this month, Holland & Knight brought on Senate committee veteran Todd Wooten to be its senior Democratic Senate lobbyist and launched a new state attorneys general team with bipartisan co-leads who were also new recruits at the firm.