Patton Boggs Publc Policy Practice

Owing to our skill and discretion, Patton Boggs has emerged as one of the most influential lobbying and law firms in the country.

For more than four decades, domestic and international corporations confronting legislative and regulatory problems in Washington, D.C., world capitals, and state capitals have looked to Patton Boggs as a trusted advisor and legal counsel.  During this period, we also have helped individuals, corporations, trade associations, and sovereign nations take advantage of legislative, regulatory, and judicial opportunities to achieve important strategic objectives.

Owing to our skill and discretion, and our reputation for conducting public policy advocacy in compliance with applicable laws and ethics rules, the firm has emerged as one of the most influential lobbying and law firms in the country, with top rankings in many respected publications.  Long before our competitors, we recognized that all three branches of government offer opportunities to advance a client’s business objectives.  We have a firm grasp of the rules of the legislative process, a strong sense of how the institutions of government operate, and over four decades of experience, which together give us a solid understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

We often have encouraged Congress or the Administration to promote new initiatives or to oppose threatened action, persuaded Congress or an agency to amend or re-interpret a regulation, or convinced courts to interpret the law in the way that we believe Congress intended—frequently on matters where we helped secure enactment of the underlying legislation.  We are also active at the state and local level on a variety of legislative, regulatory, and enforcement matters.

Since our founding, we have recognized that our overriding goal should be to help clients solve problems and to enhance their reputations with policymakers. Our highly-trained professionals are drawn from the ranks of the legislative and executive branches of government, of every political stripe, and with strong backgrounds in business and finance. We partner with our clients to achieve sensible results that promote each client’s long-term business interests.
In seeking to shape public policy decisions, we work in these broad areas of concentration on behalf of our clients:

Representative Matters:

• In a year-long effort, secured overwhelming passage of high-profile legislation on behalf of a prominent policy-development organization promoting American economic interests in India, leading our client throughout the process by strengthening overall corporate participation, establishing and implementing the legislative strategy, and effectively lobbying Congress Members and staff.
• Led the effort to secure enactment of consumer protection legislation that now provides America’s 36 million contact lens wearers with the right to receive a copy of their prescription and the ability to purchase lenses from their chosen supplier.
• Secured $1 billion in federal funds in a bipartisan effort to support a coalition representing the kidney dialysis community.  Of 25 major health care providers seeking increased funding, only six succeeded, and our client’s award was the second-largest dollar amount even though it was the smallest coalition.
• Successfully lobbied Congressional leaders to secure transportation funding for the development of a biotechnology research hub in Winston-Salem, N.C., supporting large-scale transportation development initiatives, including construction of a new road network to connect it to surrounding urban areas.
• Secured hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for universities, municipalities, transit agencies, charitable organizations and trade associations.
• Secured federal funds to build a national Civil War center – the first to simultaneously tell the story of America’s internal struggles from the Union, Confederate, and African-American perspectives – by discovering a unique precedent to support funding through the Defense Department, and working with a number of House and Senate offices in several states to build the support needed to secure funding and expand a bipartisan Congressional Advisory Board that supported the project.  The federal funding secured by Patton Boggs represented nearly one-quarter of the center’s multi-million dollar price tag.
• In response to proposed legislation affecting the entire dry cleaning industry, represented an industry alliance by taking part in several docketed meetings with the EPA (and supported by the Small Business Administration) to help the Administration scrap a proposed ban that would have unfairly limited the presence of dry cleaners in urban areas.
• Represented (and continue to represent) major telecommunication and technology companies on every aspect of landmark telecommunications and Internet legislation moving through Congress.
• Have regularly assisted with receiving governmental approvals of mega-deals, such as Alcatel-Lucent.
• Represent several sovereign nations with respect to their negotiations with the United States Government for a free trade agreement (FTA).
• Greatly expanded a client’s market access in the European Union for its products by demonstrating the WTO-incompatibility of various trade-restrictive regulations.
• Represented one of the largest municipal electric utilities in the U.S. with respect to enactment and implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, helping secure changes to earlier versions of the legislation that would have subjected the utilities to intrusive federal regulation, and thereby enabling them continue the successful growth strategies that had allowed them to flourish over the past century.