District-based LivingSocial must provide daily deals, technical and marketing training, and other services for small businesses in the city in order to qualify for the hefty tax incentive that the D.C. Council passed this summer.

The legislation passed in July requires eligible social e-commerce companies to hammer out an agreement with Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development that benefits local small businesses.

The largest stipulations in the $32.5 million tax incentive package, called the Social E-Commerce Job Creation Tax Incentive Act of 2012, require eligible companies to employ at least 1,000 people in the District and establish a 200,000-square-foot headquarters within city limits.

The feasibility of those requirements was called into doubt last week when LivingSocial announced it would lay off 400 workers across the United States, including 160 here in Washington. Those requirements must be met before the tax exemptions take effect in 2016.

The recently finalized agreement cover conditions that take effect next year. Its provisions include:

Republican lobbyist Drew Maloney, former chief executive of lobby shop Ogilvy Government Relations and an adviser for the Romney campaign, has been named vice president of government affairs and public policy for the global oil and gas company Hess Corp.

Maloney, who started last week, is leading the company’s in-house federal, state and international lobbying operations. It is a newly created position at Hess.

Maloney left Ogilvy in the summer as part of an executive shakeup that also saw the departure of then-chairman Wayne Berman to Ogilvy’s biggest client, private equity firm Blackstone Group, and two other top lobbyists.

“I had run a lobbying company and was interested in a new challenge working inside a corporation,” Maloney said. “It’s an exciting time to be involved in the energy industry. It has the underpinnings of economic growth and prosperity around the world. We will be working to promote effective government and public policy issues for the company to meet the world’s rising demand for energy supply.”

Maloney, 43, was a senior adviser to the Republican National Committee and head of legislative affairs for the Romney Readiness Project, the team that would have led the transition to the White House. He said he is no longer involved in the RNC and will be focused solely on his duties at Hess.

Hess is a longtime client of Ogilvy’s, and Maloney has been as an outside consultant for the company for several years. Ogilvy has lobbied for the company on issues including tax provisions, drilling costs and energy legislation affecting oil and gas production.

“We have worked with Drew over the years in his role at Ogilvy and are pleased to have an executive with such extensive experience lead our government relations and public policy group,” John B. Hess, chairman and chief executive of Hess Corp., said in a statement.

K&L Gates, the Pittsburgh-based law firm with one of the District’s most profitable lobby shops, plans to absorb Australian firm Middletons, creating one of the world’s largest law firms with more than 2,300 attorneys on five continents.

The combination, approved by partners at both firms Monday, will add to K&L Gates’ growing international reach by folding in Middletons’ 300 lawyers in four Australian offices under the K&L Gates brand. The merger is effective Jan. 1, and will boost K&L Gates’ presence in the Asia-Pacific region to 400 lawyers and 11 offices, including the recently announced office in Seoul that is slated to open in January.

Earlier this year, K&L Gates, which has about 235 lawyers in the District, absorbed the nine-lawyer Italian firm Marini Salsi Picciau Studio Legale.

K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner Peter Kalis will remain in the top post, and Middletons’ national managing partner Nick Nichola will become the Australia managing partner for K&L Gates.

In a joint statement, Kalis and Nichola said the combination will align the firm’s business with the businesses of clients in an era of globalization.

“With the largest integrated network of law offices and law partners of any global law firm, our clients will be able seamlessly and efficiently to access top-notch legal resources around the corner and around the world,” they said in the statement.

The combination is the second major merger involving a top U.S. law firm in less than a month. In November, SNR Denton announced it would merge with Canadian law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain and European firm Salans to form Dentons, a 2,500-lawyer firm. The merger was approved by partners last week.

The Madison hotel’s new restaurant, the Federalist, was part of the property’s recent $23 million renovation. (Katherine Frey - The Washington Post) Less than two years after being purchased by Jamestown Properties and undergoing a massive $23 million renovation, the Madison Hotel is in the process of changing hands again.

Loews Hotels & Resorts , which operated the hotel until January 2011, is buying back the iconic property in Northwest Washington for an undisclosed sum.

McLean-based Science Applications International Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 700 employees — about half of whom are locally based — as part of its annual review process.

The company said in a statement that the reductions will cut across its ranks and locations “but limit the impact on those who are delivering directly to our customers.” SAIC said it will provide training and coaching to those affected.

“These decisions were not easily made but we firmly believe that they are absolutely necessary in order for us to remain competitive,” John Jumper, SAIC’s chief executive, wrote in an e-mail to the company’s employees.

SAIC previously had 40,000 full-time employees, about 15,000 of whom are based locally. A company spokeswoman said about 330 local employees will be cut.