Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has joined the Washington office of an international law firm that specializes in providing legal services to the energy, utilities and insurance industries. Steele, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the November 2006 general election, will become a partner at LaBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP, the company announced Thursday in a statement. He will specialize in corporate securities, government relations and international affairs with a focus on Africa, according to the statement.

The firm also hopes the 48-year-old Prince George's County resident will raise its profile in political Washington.

"As the issuance of Congressional subpoenas continues to surge, Michael will also play a lead role in providing counsel to elected officials and executives brought before Congress," the statement said.

Steele is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Law Center. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in June 1992 but let his law license expire during his four-year term as lieutenant governor. He renewed March 1, paying a $375 fee, according to the Pennsylvania's Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court.

Steele, a former head of the Maryland Republican Party, has not practiced law in more than a decade. He worked for six years after law school in the Washington office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He told The (Baltimore) Sun in 2002 that he left the firm when he realized he would not make partner.