Lobbying World

• Sidley Austin has brought on Raymond A. Atkins, former counsel to a federal railroad regulator, as a partner in the firm’s transportation practice. Most recently, he was a longtime general counsel at the Surface Transportation Board, an independent office housed in the Transportation Department.

• Davis Polk & Wardwell has hired Neil MacBride, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as a partner in its Washington office. He also served as the associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department and staff director to then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). MacBride, who also worked as the general counsel of the Business Software Alliance, will focus on the white collar and government investigations practice at the firm.

{mosads}• The National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) hired Eric Byer as its new president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, and has also named Ben Traynham as the group’s manager of legislative affairs. Byer comes from Obadal, Filler, MacLeod & Klein. Prior to that, he worked as COO and vice president of government and industry affairs at the National Air Transportation Association. Before NACD, Traynham worked at Printing Industries of America and within the office of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.).

• Senior staffer to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Ian Jefferies, will join the Association of American Railroads on Dec. 11 as senior vice president of government affairs. He has spent the last four years on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where he advises Rockefeller. Jefferies also has experience at the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

• 38 North Solutions promoted Isaac Brown to partner, a move the firm notes came only six months after his initial hire. Prior to working at the government relations firm, which separated from QGA Public Affairs last fall, Brown worked as a public policy adviser at Edwards Wildman and as a floor manager to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).