No slowdown on K Street

Much changed and much stayed the same Monday when all of K Street scrambled to file the first-ever quarterly accounting of lobbying firm revenues.

What does not appear to have changed, though, are the identities of the biggest dogs on K Street; Patton Boggs, Akin Gump, Van Scoyoc Associates, and Cassidy & Associates are among the largest firms in terms of revenue.

{mosads}In the first quarter of 2008, Patton Boggs accrued $10.3 million in lobbying revenue, followed closely by the $8.8 million pulled by Akin Gump. Van Scoyoc brought in $6.6 million and Cassidy & Associates had $6 million. In 2007, Patton Boggs’s lobbying revenue totaled $42.7 million, Akin Gump’s was $32 million, Van Scoyoc’s was $28.8 million and Cassidy’s was $24.7 million.

The filing deadline marked a milestone for lobbying firms, which will have to electronically report their lobbying revenues on a quarterly basis from now on, instead of semiannually. Starting this year, the firms also have to provide information about some smaller clients and about their lobbyists’ former jobs on Capitol Hill and within federal agencies.

BGR Holdings, which ranked fifth last year with $22.7 million, did not reply to a request for comment.

Congress enacted the new lobbying registration and reporting law in 2007 as a reaction to scandals involving lobbyists and lawmakers, such as disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s conviction for influence-peddling and that of Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), an ex-House member who was convicted and imprisoned for corruption.

Akin Gump partner Joel Jankowsky, who heads the firm’s lobbying practice, said he was pleased with the first quarter of this year compared to the first half of 2007. “Depending on what next quarter looks like, it looks like [we are] on track,” he said.

Cassidy & Associates Chief Operating Officer Gregg Hartley said, “We’ve got a very strong first quarter,” including the $1.2 million in lobbying revenue from their Rhoads Group subsidiary.

Likewise, Van Scoyoc affiliate Capital Decisions had $615,000 in lobbying revenue.

“Numbers are going to be static or down a little this year,” cautioned Mike House, the director of Hogan & Hartson’s legislative group. “There’s just not a lot of legislation moving” and the presidential campaign “kind of overrides everything,” he said.

{mospagebreak}New lobbying registration rules have been in effect since Jan. 1, but Monday was the first time the firms had to file quarterly reports on revenues earned from activities covered by the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA).

Comparing the first round of quarterly reports to last year’s semiannual reports would be inconclusive. The first quarter of the year is likely to be less lucrative for lobbying firms because of the lack of legislative activity between New Year’s Day and the State of the Union address, for example.

Moreover, several lobbyists noted 2008 is a presidential election year and the final year of a president’s second term, which makes it different from any year since 2000.

{mosads}K&L Gates appears to have thrived in this sluggish environment, though, the firm reported. With $3.9 million in lobbying revenue, “We think that it is our busiest quarter ever,” said Mark Ruge, the co-chairman of the firm’s public policy practice.

A new president and a new Congress will reinvigorate the lobbying business next year, said Rich Gold, who heads the lobbying practice at Holland & Knight. “The first two years of a new administration … we will see the LDA spike again.”

Lobbying firm executives said the process was a bit more hectic this time around because they had less than three weeks to complete their reports. Still, most reported a smooth transition to the new regime.

The forms the lobbying firms used and the information they needed to include were mostly the same, but the process was a bit more difficult this time, some of companies said.

The first quarter ended on March 31, leaving lobbying firms with less time to tally their reports. “The hard part is we all are used to turning these around in 45 days; to do it in 21, it’s a challenge,” said William Minor, a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick.

“Doing it quarterly is adding a lot more work, but there wasn’t anything unexpected,” said Beth Anne Cole, who supervised the revenue tally for American Continental Group. Ferguson Group President Roger Gwinn described the process as “just a little more labor-intensive.”

“We have a huge infrastructure,” Gold said. “For us, it’s a pain in the ass but it’s not a big deal. If you are a small firm, you just got hit by a tsunami.”

The actual revenue reported also will be different because of a decrease in the minimum reportable contract from $10,000 to $5,000 and a new requirement that contracts be rounded to the nearest $10,000, not the $20,000 rounding called for by the old forms, several lobbyists pointed out.

Not everyone liked the old way better, though. Venable attorney Ronald Jacobs said that Congress actually streamlined some aspects of the system, such as doing away with the burdensome digital signatures. The electronic forms are easier to use, as well, Jacobs said.

Jankowsky noted that being able to file electronically to the House and Senate at the same time is an improvement.

Come July, though, when the firms have to file their first semiannual reports on political contributions by their lobbyists, the hassle factor will increase, Jacobs said: “That will be a complicated one to file.”

The new forms also require lobbyists to detail any past government employment dating back 20 years, a significantly longer look-back period than the two years under the old law.

Getting it wrong carries stiffer criminal and civil penalties this year, too. Lobbying firms can be fined up to $200,000 and face prison terms up to five years for failing to comply, though they would be given opportunities to correct their filing before charges were filed.

The clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate, along with the Department of Justice, have not been known as zealous enforcers of previous lobbying reporting laws, though campaigns and elections attorney Jan Witold Baran expects that to change under the new law. Justice and the Government Accountability Office are required to report to Congress on lobbyists’ compliance with the law, he noted.

“Presumably, under all theses conditions there will be more enforcement than there has been to this point,” said Baran, a partner at Wiley Rein.

Kevin Bogardus, Jessica Holzer, Jim Snyder and Roxana Tiron contributed to this report.