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Nancy Zirkin has signed her first lobbying client since leaving her post as the top lobbyist for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She’s working for the Center for Responsible Lending, a financial consumer rights group. Lobbying forms say that she’ll be working on reforming consumer lending practices and “borrower/consumer rights advocacy.” Zirkin left the Leadership Conference earlier this year after three decades at the organization.

A group formed solely to fight back against a controversial provision in the GOP tax plan limiting the state and local tax deduction has hired a public affairs firm. CLS Strategies, previously known as Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates, is now lobbying for Americans Against Double Taxation — a group primarily made up of unions and state and local groups, including the National Education Association, the National Governors Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Realtors. The group is fighting to preserve the state and local tax deduction in tax reform. The provision is of particular importance in high-tax states like New York and California.

{mosads}CoStar Group is the latest to dive into a battle to curb sex trafficking online. The lobbying firm Madison Group is working for the company through the public relations firm Reset Public Affairs. The real estate information company supports a bill from Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) that would take away some of the legal immunity tech companies have online and make it easier to prosecute and sue websites that enable sex trafficking. Andy Florence, CoStar Group’s chief executive, said that the immunity clause “can no longer be justified at the expense of the exploitation of children.”

A company that is developing plant-based meat and dairy products, Impossible Foods, hired the public relations and lobbying firm Glover Park Group to help them talk to policymakers about “agriculture and food innovation,” disclosure forms say. The six-year-old company has received $273.5 million in venture capital funding, including an investment from Bill Gates, and is known for having created a veggie burger that “bleeds” like meat. Last month, Impossible Foods began selling its products to corporate dining halls and the University of Chicago.