Still the chief of staff

The lobbying practice at Hogan & Hartson runs like a congressional office, and that’s the way Mike House likes it. The only thing missing is an elected lawmaker at the top. 

House leads the lobbying group at the international law firm’s I.M. Pei-designed building on 13th Street NW. From his perspective, that makes him more like the top staffer in a senator’s office than the big boss.

{mosads}“My job is a lot like being chief of staff to a senator, which is what I did on the Hill,” House said. “Ever since I’ve been downtown, since I’ve been in this job, they’re very similar. What do we do? We have a lot of different legislative issues. What do legislative directors and chiefs of staff do? It’s a lot of different legislative issues.

“So to some extent, the same things you did on the Hill, you’re doing downtown. You’re just doing it in a different area for different people.”

He should know what that job is like. As a young lawyer in the 1970s, House served as chief of staff for Howell Heflin when the Alabama Democrat was chief justice for his state’s Supreme Court. He followed Heflin to Washington when he was elected to the Senate. He previously worked for then-Rep. James Collins (R-Texas).

House, who’s been with Hogan & Hartson since 1991, doesn’t like to say he runs the lobbying group and emphasizes the autonomy his colleagues have. “I may be the head of this practice … but it’s not like you’ve got this system that everybody reports up,” he explained. “It’s kind of like managing a group of equals,” he said.

“We pretty much function like a congressional staff. We all work together, we all look out for each other, and there’s a real camaraderie,” he said.

Hogan & Hartson’s client list includes players big and small in practically every sector of the economy. “If it’s a big, controversial area, we’re involved in it,” House said.

House himself is registered this year for clients in diverse areas, such as energy, telecommunications, healthcare and housing, though he said he doesn’t spend as much time on Capitol Hill as he’d like. House is particularly involved in the latter area, where he is the executive director of FM Policy Focus, a coalition of housing interests and mortgage lenders seeking reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

His efforts on behalf of FM Policy Focus have gone on for 10 years, which he said underscores his analogy between working on Capitol Hill and working on K Street. “You have a lot of the same issues you’re working year in and year out. Legislation’s like that on the Hill,” he said.

Hogan & Hartson’s approach to lobbying must be paying off for the firm, which routinely ranks among the top 10 in annual lobbying revenue. Though lobbying makes up just one component of the firm’s business, House views government relations and regulatory work as a key strength at Hogan & Hartson.

House is a booster of law firms and believes they will enjoy the biggest growth rates in the lobbying business in Washington. The main reason, he said, is they can represent their clients in all facets of their dealings with the federal government.

There’s a continuum in how the government intersects with the private sector, House said. “If you really look at Washington, you have legislation, regulation, litigation, legislation,” he said. “At any given time, we may be doing issues that affect all of that.”

Thus, House’s lobbyists have a responsibility not only to Hogan & Hartson, but also to the companies and associations they represent, he said. “We take pride in our work, and pride not only in our work for our clients but pride in our work for our colleagues at the firm,” he said.

“We see ourselves as a service center for the firm,” he said. “The legislative group has its own clients that are strictly legislative clients, but an increasing amount of our business … comes from referrals inside the firm.”

Here, too, he follows the congressional model. “What does a successful congressional office do? It not only tracks and gets involved in legislation, but the best ones are very good at constituent service. Our constituent service is the firm. That’s how we view ourselves. When you do that, then people in the firm refer matters to you and you become an integral part of the firm,” he said.

Other law firms view their lobbying practices as anomalies that are materially different from their other legal work and represent just a fraction of their revenue, House said.

“Some law firms have a legislative practice and they say, you know, there are 10 people that do legislative work and they’re off there by themselves. We see ourselves as an integral part of the firm and that’s where the firm sees us,” he said.