Jim Hood, a former four-term attorney general for the state of Mississippi and a 2019 gubernatorial candidate in the state, has joined Washington, D.C.-based litigation boutique Weisbrod Matteis & Copley as counsel in the firm's Jackson, Mississippi, office, the firm said Wednesday.

"I've known Augie for a long time," Hood said in an interview, referring to Weisbrod Matteis co-founder August Matteis. Matteis represented the Mississippi Attorney General's Office in a series of lawsuits the office brought against various insurers, including State Farm, over state payments to homeowners that Mississippi claimed should have been made by insurance companies.

Hood, who officially started with the firm March 1, said his favorite pastime is hunting, and coming from public service will give him a chance to do a different sort of hunting as he builds up his private practice at his new firm.