The latest lobbying fee numbers are in. The leader of the pack is law and lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The center analyzed nine months of data from the reports that firms file with Congress in which they disclosure their fee income from clients.
Akin Gump reported $25.1 million in lobbying fees during the first three quarters of 2008. No doubt the firm was propelled by a $1.66 million contract with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts -- the largest on K Street, according to the center.
Patton Boggs came in at No. 2, reporting fees of $24 million, while Van Scoyoc
Associates was No. 3, posting fees of $18.8 million.
I looked back five years to the list of top 10 lobbying firms in October 2003. Five of the firms on the list at that time are on the list today: Akin Gump, Cassidy & Associates, Patton Boggs, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, and Van Scoyoc, proving these firms remain lobbying sector powerhouses. One shop that was big in 2003 has dropped off the list -- Greenberg Traurig, the firm where Jack Abramoff was employed.
-- Bara Vaida
(Read further for the top ten list)
These are the top 10 firms in terms of Lobbying Disclosure Act fee income for the first nine months of 2008, based on the Center's analysis. (A comparison to fee income totals from one year ago is not possible because the totals are now based on quarterly disclosures required under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act signed into law in late 2007. Prior to 2008 firms filed disclosures semi annually.)
1. Akin Gump - $25.1 million
2. Patton Boggs - $24 million
3. Van Scoyoc - $18.8 million
4. Cassidy & Associates - $17.3 million
5. Dutko Worldwide - $15.3 million
6. BGR Holding - $14.1 million
7. Ogilvy Government Relations - $12.9 million
8. Quinn Gillespie & Associates - $11.1 million
9. Holland & Knight - $10.94 million
10. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck - $10.86 million
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Responded on October 28, 2008 11:47 AM
christine dodd
thanks for the information for lobbyists!
but lobbyists are really not the nefarious actors in all of this. everyone has a "special interest" -- Head Start, Green Peace, corporations, school, hospitals, universities, Emergency Room physicians. I met with all of them when I was on the Hill and it is good to know how policy affects people and business. You can't legislate in a vaccuum especially on highly technical subjects or those requiring a deeper understanding of how the business or process operates. So, I think everyone should have a lobbyist or an advocate before the Congress. At a minimum, you should be your own lobbyist on issues important to you and meet regularly with your Congressman/woman. Christine