Mims joining Hunton and Williams

Bill Mims, Virginia's attorney general and a confidant of Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, has a new job -- he's joining the regulatory and lobbying practice of a big Richmond law firm, Hunton and Williams.

Mims, a former delegate and state senator who succeeded McDonnell as attorney general and helps lead the McDonnell gubernatorial transition, had been mentioned as a possible chief of staff or counsel to the next Republican chief executive.

Under state law, Mims is banned from lobbying the attorney general's office for a year. But Mims could represent clients before the General Assembly, the governor's office and agencies within the executive branch. Hunton and Williams is one of the city's -- and the country's -- legal powerhouses, representing such giant firms as Northrop Grumman, the defense and systems-management company embroiled in a continuing dispute with Virginia over information-technology services.