Butler Snow hires Haley Barbour after all

Reported here a month ago and then dispelled, it is official that Haley Barbour is going to join the Butler Snow law firm after all.

Here's the press release on the Butler Snow website.

Oh, and here's an excerpt from an interview with Barbour last month:

"The place that would make the most sense, that would be the most logical, would be BGR," he said Monday. "But one of the issues that I will have about anything is, making speeches takes a lot of time. So you're not very valuable to a lobbying firm or a law firm or a counseling firm or whatever if you're footin' all over the country and around the world, making speeches." (Emphasis mine.)

Barbour will also be rejoining his old firm in DC, BGR, according to the press release. In addition, Barbour's former Chief of Staff, Paul Hurst, will join Butler Snow as well.

The "Barbour to Butler Snow" rumor appears to be unfounded

It looks like all of the talk over the last few weeks about Gov. Barbour heading to the Butler Snow law firm was off base. In today's Clarion-Ledger, Emily Wagster-Pettus has an article detailing Gov. Barbour's plans after he leaves office, and from what he's telling her, it appears as though no decision has been made about the future.

According to the article, Barbour is set to give a paid speech to a Barclays Bank gathering in Miami the day after he leaves office, and is looking to give more speeches in the future. Though he intends to keep an office in Jackson, Barbour talked about rejoining his old lobbying firm, not Butler Snow:

"The place that would make the most sense, that would be the most logical, would be BGR," he said Monday. "But one of the issues that I will have about anything is, making speeches takes a lot of time. So you're not very valuable to a lobbying firm or a law firm or a counseling firm or whatever if you're footin' all over the country and around the world, making speeches."

Anyone else hearing Haley Barbour to Butler Snow? UPDATED 12-20-11

I've now heard from both sides of the aisle and throughout the legal community that Haley Barbour will be going to work for the Butler Snow law firm upon leaving office next month.  If true, Butler Snow has pulled off a major hire, even for one of the most respected firms in town.  Barbour's contacts around the globe are hardly matched, and could provide a veritable flood of business for Butler Snow.

I've always assumed that Barbour would return to his wildly successful former lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith, & Rogers in D.C., but maybe not.  If true, kudos to Butler Snow, and welcome back to private life, Governor Barbour.

UPDATE 12/20/11 - A recent story in the Clarion-Ledger seems to deny the above.