RICHMOND — Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R), a political newcomer who ran on a vow to upend Virginia politics, will fill a key Cabinet post with the ultimate Richmond insider: Richard Cullen, former chairman of the legal and lobbying powerhouse McGuireWoods.

       Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight

       Cullen will serve as the new governor’s counselor, a wide-ranging legal and policy advising role, according to two people familiar with the decision.

       A former U.S. attorney and Virginia attorney general whose clients have included former vice president Mike Pence, Cullen spent more than a decade at the helm of a firm so enmeshed in the workings of Capitol Square that it is jokingly referred to as the state’s “shadow government.”

       Story continues below advertisement

       Youngkin also has selected Jeff Goettman, a former businessman and Treasury Department official, for chief of staff, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose the choices before Youngkin’s team was ready to do so.

       Advertisement

       Cullen and Goettman did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. A Youngkin spokesman declined to comment.

       It had been widely assumed that Goettman, who had served as the Youngkin campaign’s chief operating officer, would become chief of staff since Youngkin tapped him to lead his transition shortly after Election Day.

       Until word of Cullen’s appointment started spreading Monday, the Goettman pick was the lone poorly kept secret of Youngkin’s transition — an unusually slow and opaque process that has left lobbyists, interest groups and others with business before the state government wondering what the incoming administration will look like.

       Story continues below advertisement

       Virginia Republicans rise from the ashes while Democrats ponder what went wrong

       As a first-time candidate who avoided policy specifics on the campaign trail, Youngkin has offered few clues as to how he will govern. The former Carlyle Group executive, who lent his campaign $20 million, has echoed some of former president Donald Trump’s drain-the-swamp rhetoric while cutting a more mainstream image as a fleece-clad basketball dad.

       Between Trump acolyte and suburban dad: Inside the many faces of Virginia GOP’s Youngkin

       Youngkin, who takes office Jan. 15, has announced just three other Cabinet picks, all from outside government: investment banker Stephen Emery Cummings for finance secretary; Aimee Rogstad Guidera, a consultant and national expert on the use of data in education policy, for education secretary; and Northern Virginia business executive Caren Merrick for commerce secretary.

       Youngkin has many more Cabinet picks to announce. Outgoing Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who, under the state constitution, could not seek a consecutive term, has a 15-member Cabinet.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Cullen’s selection could suggest that Youngkin does not intend to thoroughly disrupt “politics as usual” in a state where cozy ties between government and business interests have long been lauded — and derided — as “the Virginia way.” At the very least, the choice indicates that Youngkin wants an experienced political hand on his team as he tries to get his arms around the state’s sprawling bureaucracy.

       Cullen served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1991 to 1994 after being appointed by President George H.W. Bush, according to his biography on the McGuireWoods website. He was Virginia’s attorney general from 1997 to 1998, taking over from Republican Jim Gilmore, who had stepped down to run for governor.

       Cullen served on President George W. Bush’s legal team during the recount of the 2000 presidential election in Florida but has worked with Virginia governors on both sides of the aisle — helping Democrat L. Douglas Wilder build support for legislation limiting handgun purchases to one per month and assisting Republican George Allen with plans to abolish parole for violent offenders.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) reached out to Cullen in 2013 as federal investigators started probing the relationship between the governor, his wife and a Richmond businessman who had showered them with $177,000 in luxury vacations, gifts and sweetheart loans. But in that case, Cullen had to turn the governor away. He’d already been retained by the businessman, Jonnie R. Williams Sr.

       Williams, who wound up with a broad immunity deal, testified against the McDonnells, helping prosecutors convict McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, of public corruption. The Supreme Court vacated McDonnell’s conviction, and prosecutors opted not to retry the couple.

       In 2017, Pence hired Cullen to represent him in both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation then investigating possible collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Two years later, Cullen led an investigation on behalf of Eastern Virginia Medical School into a racist photo on Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page. Northam nearly resigned when the photo, which showed one person in blackface and another under a Klan hood, surfaced in early 2019. The governor initially apologized for appearing in the photo but the next day changed course, saying that he knew nothing about the picture and that he had taken responsibility for it under pressure to put the scandal behind him.

       Investigators could not determine if Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is in racist yearbook photo

       After four months, Cullen announced that investigators had been unable to determine whether Northam was in the photo.