Bloomberg reporter Robert Schmidt writes:

Former U.S. Senator Luther Strange, who lost a Republican primary race in Alabama last year despite the backing of President Donald Trump, is returning to Washington to advise financial firms.

Strange is joining Patomak Global Partners, a regulatory consulting firm with close ties to the Trump administration. The ex-prosecutor spent a year in the Senate after he was appointed to the seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.

Patomak, where Strange will be a senior adviser, helps asset managers, brokerages and other companies navigate the thicket of regulations that have grown since the financial crisis. The firm was founded by Paul Atkins, a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2002 to 2008.

“Paul’s firm is unique and is a perfect complement for what I want to do post-politics,” Strange said in an interview this week. “This is a great combination of compliance and legal work, and it all boils down to solving problems.”

Atkins said he expects Strange will be a major contributor to the firm’s enforcement and litigation work, which includes independent monitoring of settlement agreements in cases brought by the Justice Department, the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and state regulators.

Before his quick turn in the Senate, Strange was twice elected as Alabama’s attorney general. While in that job, he took a leading role in the massive legal fight stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“There are so many senators that who get ‘Potomac fever,’ and they stay here and join a lobbying firm,” said Atkins. Strange will be doing a job that “is real work, versus smiling and dialing,” Atkins added. “That is a testament to Luther.”

Strange, 65, said he plans to split his time between Washington and Birmingham, Alabama, where he’s opened his own law firm.

Read the full coverage here.