Personnel note: Donald Trump hires former Sessions staffer Jeff Wood as energy policy adviser

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump tapped Jeff Wood, partner at Balch & Bingham law firm and former legal counsel for Alabama U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, to advise him on energy policy.

Wood was a legal counsel for Sessions from 2011 to 2014, where he focused on energy and environmental issues, before later becoming a partner at Balch & Bingham where counsels businesses, associations, and other clients primarily in the environmental, natural resources, and energy contexts.

Wood began his legal career as an associate with Balch & Bingham’s Environmental and Natural Resources Section before joining a large, privately held corporation where he rose to the position of assistant general counsel and managed litigation in federal and state courts across the country.

During his time with Sessions — whose influence within the Trump campaign explains Wood’s hire — he also served as the Republican staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air & Nuclear Safety in the 113th Congress and the Republican staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Water & Wildlife in the 112th Congress. In those capacities, Wood interacted regularly with senior officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior (including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Reclamation), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation, General Services Administration (GSA), and other federal agencies and entities subject to the oversight jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

According to POLITICO, which first reported of Wood’s hiring, it’s unclear exactly when he began working for the campaign.