Husch Blackwell has bolstered its Transportation and Public Policy, Regulatory & Government Affairs teams with the addition of Charles D. “Chip” Nottingham as a Partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. As a nationally recognized leader in the transportation industry, he brings 20 years of government relations experience to Husch Blackwell clients.
Throughout his career, Nottingham has held senior positions in Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation and in state government. He has worked closely with leadership of the Senate and House, as well as with Congressional leaders of a number of key committees.
In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed and the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Nottingham to a five-year term on the federal Surface Transportation Board. He served as the STB’s chairman (2006-2009), commissioner (2009-2010) and vice chairman (2011) and worked closely with the freight rail, energy, agriculture, motor carrier, moving and storage, automotive and chemical industries. He also worked to create the Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee in order to improve collaboration between the energy and freight rail sectors.
Among other positions, Nottingham also served as the:
- chief of staff for Congressman Bob Goodlatte who is the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Vice Chair of the Agriculture Committee;
- counsel and chief of staff for former Congressman Tom Davis who chaired the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and served in the House leadership;
- Federal Highway Administration’s associate administrator for policy and governmental affairs with responsibility for coordinating the Congressional reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program in 2005;
- counsel for the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;
- commonwealth transportation commissioner/CEO of the Virginia Department of Transportation — where he managed the nation’s third-largest highway system with more than 10,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $3 billion; and
- assistant secretary of transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Nottingham joins Husch Blackwell after spearheading the expansion of an AmLaw 200 firm’s transportation and infrastructure and government relations practice areas (2011-2013). At his previous firm he advised clients on transportation industry mergers, USDOT and STB regulatory matters; intellectual property protection, Congressional investigations; general lobbying, as well as mediation of contract disputes.
He received his J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law (1994) in Arlington, Va., and his B.A. in history and government from Wesleyan University (1989) in Middletown, Conn.
