GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS: DESCRIPTION
The halls of government are often a mystery to businesses and organizations that find themselves face to face with a government-related challenge. Our Government Affairs team provides effective solutions and creates opportunities for clients seeking to impact government policy and decision-making or engage in business with governments on the federal, national, state, local and international levels.
Our long-standing success in winning public opportunities and solving public problems for clients – whether businesses, industry associations, non-profits, educational institutions or governments – is based on our core strengths: prior experience within government, cross-jurisdictional talent and solutions, a bipartisan commitment, substantive legal prowess, and skillful public and crisis communications management.
In 2006, McKenna Long & Aldridge expanded to New York and Albany, combining with a leading New York law firm to create the Plunkett & Jaffe Group of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. This New York presence is now an integral part of our government affairs practice and conducts public policy activities in many areas, including environmental and land use, energy, litigation, administrative law, real estate, health care and media and telecommunications.
Prior Experience Within Government
Our team members have held senior elected and appointed government positions, including as legislators, diplomats, advisors to U.S. presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, and government attorneys at the state and local level. We have served in every branch of government at every level -- local, state and federal – across the country.
This real-world experience helps us understand the ever-shifting political landscape and the government maze in order to help our clients expedite issues, seize opportunities and prevent problems, present issues effectively to officials and the public, gain support for their positions, build winning coalitions -- and obtain results that matter.
Cross-Jurisdictional Talent and Solutions
Business problems requiring public policy solutions are rarely limited to one jurisdiction. Our unique combination of local, state, national, federal, and international government affairs practices enables us to solve the varying challenges that our clients face in multiple jurisdictions. Because we understand the interplay between different levels of government, we marshal the appropriate resources to deliver the results that a client demands.
We recognize that the successful resolution of a client’s government affairs challenges normally requires assistance from both sides of the political aisle. For this reason, our practitioners of all political stripes and influence work diligently together with a focus not on politics, but on the achievement of a client’s goals.
Many of our government affairs professionals are practicing attorneys. In addition to their ability to navigate a client’s issues through the political and governmental maze, this substantive legal prowess enables us to provide clients with, when necessary, legal counsel and advice that is sometimes needed where legal considerations meet political and governmental issues.
In addition, our government affairs team frequently calls upon the legal skills of attorneys within the rest of the firm, including lawyers in our regulatory, government contracts, corporate, intellectual property and technology, environmental, real estate and litigation practices.
Public and Crisis Communications
Many of our team members have run political campaigns and have extensive experience handling media relations and public communications in the political and public spheres. Our professionals draw upon this experience nationally, at the state level, locally, and in Washington, DC in order to represent clients and creatively manage and solve problems that often are complex. These solutions can be as simple as arranging a meeting with a key official or as complex as participating in public hearings, building a broad coalition and mounting grassroots and media campaigns.