Our General View of Lobbying

	First, we consider lobbying and other government relations work to be a very legitimate and necessary part of the federal governmental process.  Moreover, decisions in Congress, and the various federal departments and agencies in the Executive Branch now clearly tend to have far more frequent direct and lasting positive or negative impacts on many organizations than ever before.  Thus, they must have effective Washington representation in order to compete effectively and to protect their vital interests.
	Today's Washington climate is far less responsive to "back-room deals" and last minute "quick fixes."  Organizations' "business" with the federal government must be approached in a more sophisticated and business-like manner.  This type of work is usually best handled by persons who specialize in legislative and government relations work and who have good relationships with Republican and Democratic elected officials, Congressional staff and agency officials.  Typically, this requires developing a carefully planned, well organized and ongoing federal affairs program that utilizes highly skilled professionals who have broad substantive and political resources and experiences.  Such a program, for example, usually includes establishing a careful monitoring system to provide "early warning" of potential actions, and then having the know-how and resources to affirmatively influence the federal actions from the beginning of the decision-making process.
	Our lobbying practice has put us in close and frequent contact with virtually all major committees of the Congress.  Thus, for example, we work with committees having jurisdiction over appropriations, armed services, commerce, energy, environmental matters, health care, housing finance, financial services, natural resources, taxation, trade, telecommunications and transportation policy. In addition, we have excellent working relationships with the key House Rules Committee.
	While our firm has strong capabilities, we recognize that in today's complex Washington environment, no single firm can always have the internal resources to effectively solve every problem that might arise for its clients.  Thus, whenever we believe that a client's interests can be furthered by having an issue handled by another lawyer or lobbyist, we have no hesitancy in urging our client to retain another party to work on a particular problem or to join in a team effort to deal with the problem.
	Our general approach seeks to be more "inter-active" and "pro-active" than many Washington representatives.  We have frequent interaction with our clients, and insist on having regular and candid communication with a designated person or persons in the client's organization.  It is essential for us to understand each client's basic operations and how federal actions might affect those interests.  Moreover, we believe that it is equally important that clients are kept currently advised of our various actions on their behalf, including specifically what we are doing, with whom and why.  Our firm's perspective also tends to be pro-active, being involved in issues from the outset and actively advocating the client's views.