11-17-2001
LOBBYING: K Street For November 17, 2001
Lucent to Shutter Its D.C. Outpost
As part of an ongoing restructuring of its international government
affairs operations, Lucent Technologies is closing its Washington office
on December 31. Lucent, which makes telecommunications equipment, has been
mired in economic difficulties for the past year, cutting its workforce
from 150,000 to 60,000. The decision to close the Washington office was
made before September 11. Sources close to the firm said that Lucent's
government affairs staff worldwide was down from a high of 42 three years
ago to about 10 today, and that it will eventually stabilize at six.
Martina L. Bradford, who heads the Washington office and is corporate vice
president for public affairs, will move to a major law firm in the capital
and will continue to represent Lucent through an outsourcing arrangement.
In June, several Washington-based executives accepted buyout packages:
Stephanie Childs and Gary Koch, directors of global public affairs; Mary
P. McManus, vice president of global public affairs; and Joseph Priester,
political action committee treasurer. Directors of global public affairs
Sue McNeil and Joanne Wilson left before the layoffs. A source said that
Lucent's buyouts were generous, adding that Lucent decided to close all
lobbying offices worldwide but would retain personnel to work on
government contracts in the United States and abroad. Lucent spokesman
Bill Price says: "The whole company is looking at cost structures and
making moves to streamline operations."
PhRMA Taps Edelman for Help
With fears of bioterrorism on the rise, the pharmaceutical industry's top
trade group has hired Edelman Public Relations Worldwide to craft a
communications strategy aimed at touting drug companies' actions against
potential threats. Edelman will develop new PR materials, including
brochures and possibly a special Web site, for the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America. The drug industry wants to "provide
solutions and to serve as a leading source of information to the
public," says Chris Molineaux, PhRMA's vice president for public
affairs. Edelman joins about two dozen other K Street firms that are on
retainer with PhRMA. Separately, PhRMA has set up a new
emergency-preparedness task force composed of about a dozen company chief
executives. The task force has met with Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson; PhRMA has hired Dr. Michael Friedman, a
former acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to be its
chief medical officer for biomedical preparedness.
On Capitol Hill, drug industry lobbyists and executives, as well as
biotech lobbyists, have been talking to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and
his staff about what drug companies need from the government to help speed
production of smallpox vaccines and other medicines useful in combating
bioterrorism. One key priority for the biotech and drug industries:
liability protection from lawsuits filed over deaths and injuries caused
by vaccines and medicines. But a Kennedy-sponsored bioterrorism bill,
which was expected to be introduced on November 14, won't include
liability protections, according to a Capitol Hill source. Kennedy feels
that an executive order already issued by the White House provides a
mechanism for protecting the industry from court suits.
More Billable Hours on Enron-Dynegy
The pending marriage between ailing giant Enron Corp. and smaller Dynegy
Inc. has already generated plenty of billable hours on K Street. Now comes
a promise of more work as the deal undergoes antitrust, regulatory, and
congressional scrutiny. Dynegy has been using two firms-Akin, Gump,
Strauss, Hauer & Feld; and Baker Botts-on transactional matters, and
it plans to tap Clifford M. Naeve, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate,
Meagher & Flom, for help with regulatory issues. Naeve is a former
commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Energy lawyers
working the deal add that a well-known European law firm is also likely to
be hired to handle regulatory and legal issues on the Continent. Dynegy
also has the Washington lobbying firm Alpine Group Inc. on its team.
"This will be a very lawyer- and accountant-intensive
transaction," says an outside lawyer for Dynegy. Enron, meanwhile,
has relied for help on the law firms of Vinson & Elkins and Weil,
Gotshal & Manges, but it also has a large stable of outside lobbying
firms it can deploy, including Quinn Gillespie & Associates and
Bracewell & Patterson.
Can Arent Fox Get Them Rolling?
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn has signed up two travel-industry
clients hit hard by fallout from the September 11 attacks. The law and
lobbying firm signed up Rolls-Royce North America, which makes airplane
engines, and Carey International Worldwide Chauffeured, Services, a top
chauffeur company. "Like a lot of the companies in the aviation
industry, Rolls-Royce has both liability and insurance issues," says
Craig Engle, who is of counsel to Arent Fox's government relations
practice and a former general counsel to the National Republican
Senatorial Committee. (Rolls-Royce did not manufacture the engines on the
American Airlines jetliner that crashed in New York City on November 12.)
Engle and his colleagues are trying to place language to assist the
industry in one of three bills before Congress: the airport security bill,
the terrorism insurance legislation, or the economic stimulus package.
Harry Katrichis, a former chief counsel to the House Small Business
Committee, is another lobbyist working heavily on the Rolls-Royce account.
Carey International, which operates in 480 cities in 75 countries, has
"suffered catastrophic financial losses" because of the decline
in air travel since September 11, says Elliott Portnoy, head of the
government relations practice group at Arent Fox. The company, he says, is
asking Congress for federal loan guarantees.
Shawn Zeller, Peter H. Stone, Louis Jacobson
National Journal
