Bottom Line

Since the beginning of the year, there have been more than 70 filings with the Justice Department to disclose new lobbying contracts with foreign governments or parties, including almost 20 this month alone.

Hires by the Saudi government, or entities tied to it, represent almost half of the filings this month.

The country’s most recent additions include a cluster of public relations firms, APCO Worldwide and FleishmanHillard, a law firm, Gowling WLG, and a law and lobbying firm, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

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APCO was hired by the Saudis to “provide strategic communications, media relations, and government relations services within the United States to highlight the country’s efforts to benchmark and measure its progress toward its long term reform objectives.” The contract has a fixed fee of almost $1.6 million through April 30.

FleishmanHillard is working for King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), which includes an “integrated communications strategy for a forum to be hosted at MIT” and promoting the economic developments in Saudi Arabia. The forum “will bring together senior executives in academia and industry from Saudi Arabia and Boston to focus on how the Boston Innovation Ecosystem can help advance and support the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.” The firm, among other things, will “create invitations to the forum and track attendance.”

The contract fees shall not exceed $300,000, disclosures say.

Gowling WLG, a law firm based in Canada, is representing Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources. The contract comes as Saudi Arabia pushes the Trump administration to sign off on having U.S. companies build nuclear reactors in the country. Expenses are capped at $66,000 per month.

Finally, Akin Gump is working for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund. The firm will be working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and other U.S. policymakers regarding the fund’s “current and anticipated investments in the United States,” according to disclosures filed by the Justice Department, in addition to providing “strategic advice.” The fees on the contract, which lasts until May 1, are capped at $535,000.