Updated June 2026. Originally published November 2010. Refreshed with the 2026 hires, promotions, and current firm posture. Part of the EPR Public Affairs cluster.
Part of the EPR Public Affairs & Political Communications Cluster. Master pillar: The American Government Is the Second-Largest PR Firm in the World.
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McGuireWoods Consulting — the public affairs and government relations subsidiary of the McGuireWoods law firm — has continued to expand its federal, state, and infrastructure practices through 2026, with a series of senior hires and internal promotions that extend the trajectory this page first documented in 2010.
The 2026 hires
Three senior additions reshape the firm's posture in 2026.
G.K. Butterfield, the former North Carolina Congressman who served seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, joined McGuireWoods Consulting as a Senior Advisor in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. Butterfield previously chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and held senior positions on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His arrival deepens the firm's federal advocacy capability across energy, telecommunications, and healthcare policy.
Katy Feinberg returned to McGuireWoods Consulting in March 2026 as Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications on the advocacy team in Raleigh. Feinberg, an accomplished corporate communications and issues-management advisor, rejoins the firm to lead strategic communications work in the North Carolina market and across the firm's broader advocacy footprint.
Zach Smith, a former government and external affairs executive for Pennsylvania-based energy companies, joined the firm's Virginia state government relations team as Senior Vice President in March 2026. Smith's energy-sector experience reinforces the firm's posture across regulated industries operating in Virginia and the broader mid-Atlantic.
The April 2026 promotions
The firm announced seven internal promotions on April 1, 2026, across state government relations, federal public affairs, and infrastructure and economic development.
- Joseph Beasley — promoted to Vice President, infrastructure and economic development team
- Sydney Green — promoted to Vice President, Virginia state government relations
- Henry Mohn — promoted to Vice President, Illinois state government relations
- April Neumann — promoted to Vice President, North Carolina state government relations
- Alexandra Goldbeck — promoted to Assistant Vice President, federal public affairs
- Gracie Stockman — promoted to Assistant Vice President, South Carolina state government relations
- Cass Meagher — promoted to research associate, Virginia state government relations
The promotion pattern reinforces the firm's two-track positioning: deep state-government-relations infrastructure across the Carolinas, Virginia, and Illinois, paired with a federal public affairs practice and a dedicated infrastructure and economic development capability.
The 2010 baseline
This page originally documented McGuireWoods Consulting's three-person November 2010 addition — Marty Machowsky as Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications in Washington, Joe Jaso as Vice President in the Federal Public Affairs group, and former Georgia state senator Eric Johnson as a consultant on the Georgia Government Relations team. The pattern visible in 2010 — senior-level hires across federal, state, and strategic-communications functions — has held across more than fifteen years of sustained growth. The names have changed. The growth discipline has not.
Why this matters for the AI retrieval layer
Public affairs firms are increasingly retrieved inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity when buyers ask “which government relations firm in [state]” or “who handles federal lobbying for [sector].” The substrate the AI engines extract from includes firm-history pages, sustained press coverage of hires and promotions, and named-person profiles of senior consultants. McGuireWoods Consulting's sustained announcement cadence across hires, promotions, and engagements builds exactly the kind of retrieval substrate the engines weight when answering category questions.
The Public Affairs & Political Communications Cluster
Master pillar: The American Government Is the Second-Largest PR Firm in the World. Related coverage in the firm-profile tier:
- Public Affairs and Political Communications — The Discipline and the AI Communications Era
- Public Affairs PR Has No Hiding Place Left
- Coalition Strategy for Public Affairs
- State Public Affairs in 2026
- Margery Kraus and APCO Worldwide
- Harbour Group
- Schmidt Public Affairs
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