Arent Fox Adds Energy Attorney to Its Lobbying Group

Updated at 5:23 p.m.

Arent Fox has added the founding managing partner and general counsel for a Washington-based energy consulting firm to its government relations and energy practices, the law firm announced on Monday.

W. Jackson "Jack" Coleman, who had been with EnergyNorthAmerica since 2009, will primarily advise members of the oil and gas industries at Arent Fox. He most recently lobbied at EnergyNorthAmerica for oil and gas companies Noble Energy Inc. and Denbury Resources Inc., according to congressional records. EnergyNorthAmerica received $90,000 from Noble and $60,000 from Denbury for Coleman's advocacy efforts during the first half of this year.

Coleman, who joined Arent Fox as counsel, said EnergyNorthAmerica didn't offer all the services he wanted to give to his clients.

"I wished that I had a larger firm," Coleman said, adding that he is "tremendously impressed" with Arent Fox.

Before EnergyNorthAmerica, Coleman spent six years on Capitol Hill, serving stints as the Republican energy and minerals counsel for the House Resources Committee and the Republican general counsel for the House Natural Resources Committee. He also was a senior Interior Department attorney, working on royalties and offshore minerals from 1992 to 2003 and environmental protection from 1989 to 1992.

In 1988, he was the Republican nominee for Mississippi's 2nd congressional district, after serving as a special assistant at the Office of the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and as a captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.