10-21-2000

LOBBYING: K Street For October 21, 2000

Cleaning Haus at Siemens


The new head of Siemens Corp.'s Washington office is shaking things up.
Hired in June after a stint here as senior vice president for government
affairs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Gregg Ward has decided that
the German-based company's lobbying team needs an overhaul. "Like
many European companies, Siemens was following the European model of
government relations," Ward said. Siemens executives, he explained,
"would watch and observe and report back to Germany." Ward said
he intends to hire as many as five people and to establish a
"prototypical lobbying office" aimed at advancing the
policy-making agenda.


Meanwhile, the old guard is on the way out. Ward replaced Jeremiah L.
Murphy, who retired. Leaving the electronics and electrical engineering
company by Nov. 15 are James F. Conway Jr., manager for congressional
relations; Stephen L. Cooney Jr., manager for international political
economy and policy development; and Robert G. Rogers, a public policy
counsel. Ward has hired the executive search firm of Korn/Ferry
International to help build a new staff. Siemens no longer retains Millian
Associates, the company's outside lobbying shop, Ward said. After
replenishing his staff, Ward added, he will retain another lobbying
firm.


Stacked Up Over Washington


The lobbying over United Airlines' proposed $11.6 billion merger with US
Airways continues just as the deal looks a bit shaky. US Airways recently
added Cassidy & Associates, O'Melveny & Myers, and New York
City-based Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to its lobbying team.
The Washington office of Skadden, Arps, which already does legal work for
US Airways, has tapped Ivan A. Schlager, a former Democratic staff
director and chief counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Committee, to lobby for the airline. The Cassidy effort
includes former Rep. Marty Russo, D-Ill. At the Washington office of the
Los Angeles-based law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, former Transportation
Secretary William T. Coleman Jr. and Ronald A. Klain, a former chief of
staff to Vice President Al Gore, are leading the charge.


Earlier this month, Continental Airlines complicated the proposed airline
merger by bidding $215 million for the landing slots at Reagan Washington
National Airport that US Airways and United had offered to sell to Black
Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson in an effort to bolster
Capitol Hill support for the merger. By giving up the Reagan National
slots, the airlines hope to short-circuit criticisms about the combined
airlines' dominance of the Washington market. Johnson would head a new
Washington-based airline, DC Air.


Continental has put a kink in that plan, however, by offering far more for
the landing slots than Johnson has. Continental argues that an established
airline would provide more competition than an untested start-up. Rebecca
G. Cox, a former Transportation Department official in the Reagan
Administration, heads Continental's in-house lobbying effort. BET has
signed up the high-profile lobbying firm of Quinn Gillespie &
Associates to push its case.


Shawn Zeller

National Journal