Too Early to Google

Tax Counsel Heads to Law Firm

Another big GOP Hill denizen is getting scooped up by Alston & Bird . Ed McClellan , tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee is joining the law firm as a partner, practicing in its legislative and public policy group, home to former senators Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) and Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.).

McClellan, who plans to start work at the firm by the end of summer, earlier was a senior manager for international tax services for the national tax office of KPMG .

He said he would recuse himself from any Alston & Bird matter, but there is nothing pending. He will have a one-year ethics ban on lobbying the finance committee or its staff.

A certified public accountant, McClellan said he does his own taxes: "Already filed and the refund is in the bank."

In Other Moves . . .

Cynthia Church , recently assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, will join Fleishman-Hillard as a senior vice president. She will provide "strategic counsel and help[ing] manage the agency's stable of public affairs clients," says F-H. She was deputy press secretary for then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Tom Coleman , a former GOP House member from Missouri, has signed on with the Livingston Group . He was vice president for government relations for BASF Corp., the U.S. operating unit of BASF AG, a chemical company based in Germany. Coleman founded the U.S. Congressional Study Group on Germany.

Veteran lobbyist Ruth Ravitz Smith will sign on July 1 with Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels as a principal in the government law and strategies practice group. Smith most recently was vice president of federal government relations for the St. Paul Travelers Cos., and earlier did government relations for Northeast Utilities and the Aerospace Industries Association. She also worked at the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Marlene E. English , previously federal government relations coordinator at St. Paul Travelers, also will be joining the firm as a government relations specialist.

Jane Fawcett-Hoover is retiring from Procter & Gamble Co. as vice president for national government relations, effective Sept. 1. She was at P&G for 30 years and headed the Washington office since 1995. Hoover will be succeeded by Carolyn Brehm , who joined P&G in 2000 and earlier worked for the Business Roundtable.

The National Association of Realtors has brought on Julia Gustafson as a lobbyist. Most recently she was legislative director for Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-Mont.).