Big Lobbying Practices See a Billion-Dollar Year

[Joanne98]

Legal Times' annual Influence 50 report shows nonlobbying revenue driving a record year for the largest lobby shops

The 50 highest-grossing lobbying practices in the country passed the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time last year, thanks in part to strong growth in work that's outside the traditional boundaries of legislative lobbying.

Legal Times' annual Influence 50 survey shows that some of the biggest players in the lobbying world raked in multimillion-dollar increases in fees from public relations, legislative activity monitoring, and grass-roots advocacy. The survey, which covers annual income from lobbying work for 2007, also reveals that law firms are continuing to outpace nonlaw firms in revenue growth -- and last year pulled in more than 64 percent of the revenue among Influence 50 firms.

Overall, revenue among the Influence 50 was up 11 percent. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld ranks No. 1 on the list for the second consecutive year, with $89.8 million in lobbying income. Patton Boggs was a close runner-up, pulling down $89.3 million.

Both firms reported double-digit revenue increases, and Patton Boggs, in particular, saw a big jump in the amount of money earned from less traditional lobbying work. More than half the firm's $18.2 million gross revenue increase came from something other than legislative lobbying.

The Influence survey measures lobbying revenues reported to Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) and to the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). It also asks firms to provide information about state-level and foreign lobbying and other related lobbying work.

It's that "other related work" category that many firms see as a linchpin for future growth. The category accounted for a third of the overall gross revenue collected by the Influence 50 -- or $339 million. That's a 13 percent increase over last year's total, and the fastest growing revenue category on this year's survey.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1205491406995

[PA Democrat]

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