Lobbying World

•The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) hired Chuck Clapton as its senior vice president of federal advocacy. He is a partner at Hogan Lovells and begins his new post March 17. On Capitol Hill, he most recently worked for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and has also served in senior roles on Capitol Hill. 

•The cloud technology company Opower is bringing on Republican pollster Frank Luntz and Obama campaign strategist Jim Messina as advisers to “help guide Opower’s policy and communications goals.” Messina manned the Obama reelection campaign in 2012 and served as his deputy chief of staff at the White House. Luntz has “written, supervised, and conducted more than 2,000 surveys, focus groups, ad tests, and dial sessions over the past decade,” according to a release. 

{mosads}•Whitney Tipton, former director of national advertising at the Daily Caller, has joined Clear Channel Outdoor. She will serve as the director of advocacy and political advertising and work on developing the channel’s “market strategy for political, advocacy and government advertising.”

•Edwards Lifesciences Corporation hired Leah Kegler as its director of government affairs. Before that, she held a similar position at AdvaMed. She also worked for the White House’s National Economic Council, the Senate Finance Committee, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and at the firm Partner Relations Group. 

•Former Clinton administration official Ira Shapiro has formed a consulting firm, Ira Shapiro Global Strategies. The firm will specialize in international trade issues and provide customers will government relations services. He previously worked at Greenberg Traurig and served as an ambassador and chief trade negotiator with Japan and Canada.

•Two law firms that specialize in complex litigation, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Leopold Law, have merged. Theodore J. Leopold and Leslie M. Kroeger have been named Cohen Milstein partners. Cohen Milstein says it’s a “class-action powerhouse,” recently winning a $500 million settlement for purchasers of countrywide mortgage-backed securities.

•The FIRST Group has hired Dan McCarthy, the senior director of national affairs for Anheuser-Busch. He will start on March 1, leaving the beer company after nine years. Before that, he worked in the George W. Bush White House and as the director of external affairs for the Republican National Convention in 2004.