Former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges to lead national lobbying firm

Former Gov. Jim Hodges has been named president and CEO of McGuireWoods Consulting, LLC, a public affairs and lobbying firm with offices in seven state capitals, Washington, D.C., and Europe, according to the firm.

Hodges, who was South Carolina’s governor from 1999 to 2003, has been working for McGuireWoods since 2009, when his own consulting firm merged with the company.

“Our focus is on crafting strategies that achieve positive solutions for our clients, and that often means doing things in new and creative ways,” Hodges said in a company news release. “That has been the hallmark of McGuireWoods Consulting in the past and is the key to our future.”

McGuireWoods has placed in the Top 20 of National Law Journal’s rankings of more than 1,500 federal government relations firms for the past five years, according to the company. It offers “a full spectrum of services that include comprehensive local, regional and national lobbying capabilities as well as infrastructure and economic development assistance, strategic and crisis communications and advocacy coalition development, and multi-state public affairs capabilities,” according to the release.

Hodges will continue to live in Columbia and divide his time between the firm’s offices in Washington, Richmond, Va., and nationwide, the company said.

Hodges will succeed one of the 20-year-old firm’s founders, Frank B. Atkinson, in the leadership role, according to the release.