Former Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones Joins Arent Fox Firm

Former Sen. Doug Jones has joined Arent Fox as counsel in its government relations and government enforcement and white collar groups.

Jones, an Alabama Democrat, left Capitol Hill in January after losing re-election to the seat he won narrowly in a 2017 special election.

At the firm, he’ll focus on issues relating to the national security, health care, and financial services industries. He’ll draw on his congressional experience serving on the committees on Banking; Armed Services; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Although he’s barred from lobbying his former colleagues in the House and Senate for two years, Jones may advocate before the administration. Representatives for the firm didn’t respond to an inquiry about whether Jones intends to register to lobby.

Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) has joined Arent Fox

Jones is bringing one of his former aides, Cissy Jackson, along with him to the firm. She most recently served on his staff as both counsel and national security adviser, handling immigration and issues including border security, civil rights, firearms, and criminal justice.

She has experience working with aides on both sides of the aisle, forged during negotiations on appropriations and annual defense authorization legislation. The experience also gave her connections to Pentagon leadership and those within the defense industry.

The two will also be working in the Arent Fox’s Center for Racial Equality, focusing on civil rights work.

Prior to Congress, Jones worked in private practice and as a federal prosecutor.

As a law student in the 1970s, Jones followed the Alabama attorney general’s successful prosecution of a Ku Klux Klan member for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 that killed four Black girls. As a U.S. attorney, Jones led the prosecution of two other Ku Klux Klan members involved in the bombing, winning convictions in 2001 and 2002.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megan R. Wilson in Washington at mwilson@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com; Kyle Trygstad at ktrygstad@bgov.com