Thorn Run Partners is proud to have been listed as a “top firm” for the first quarter of 2020 by POLITICO Influence — the leading government affairs beat in Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2010, TRP has consistently ranked among Washington’s fastest growing lobbying firms according to analysis from Politico, The Hill, Bloomberg Government, and others. In the writeup of this announcement, TRP’s Andy Rosenberg was cited for his perspective on the current landscape for lobbying activity in the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. “The current rush of lobbying activity will probably be followed by some degree of economic downturn, and that’s never good for anyone’s business,” said Rosenberg. “However, the fact that every public and private entity now realizes the importance of the federal government to their economic future should cut the other way for the better government affairs firms.”
Here are your Lobbying Disclosure Act revenue rankings for the first quarter of 2020.
TOP FIRMS
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: $12.6 million (versus $11.4 million in Q4 2019 and $9.6 million in Q1 2019)
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: $11.5 million (versus $11.5 million in Q4 2019 and $9.2 million in Q1 2019)
BGR Group: $7.8 million (versus $7.9 million in Q4 2019 and $6.9 million in Q1 2019)
Squire Patton Boggs: $6.7 million (versus $6.7 million in Q4 2019 and $6.7 million in Q1 2019)
Holland & Knight: $6.4 million (versus $6.4 million in Q4 2019 and $5.7 million in Q1 2019)
Cornerstone Government Affairs: $6.3 million (versus $6.1 million in Q4 2019 and $5.4 million in Q1 2019)
Ballard Partners: $5.4 million (versus $5 million in Q4 2019 and $4.3 million in Q1 2019)
Invariant: $4.8 million (versus $4.7 million in Q4 2019 and $3.5 million in Q1 2019)
K&L Gates: $4.7 million (versus $4.4 million in Q4 2019 and $4.6 million in Q1 2019)
Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas: $4.6 million (versus $4.4 million in Q4 2019 and $4 million in Q1 2019)
Capitol Counsel: $4.5 million (versus $4.7 million in Q4 2019 and $4 million in Q1 2019)
Forbes Tate Partners: $4.3 million (versus $4.1 million in Q4 2019 and $3.5 million in Q1 2019)
Covington & Burling: $4.1 million (versus $4.1 million in Q4 2019 and $3.9 million in Q1 2019)
Cassidy & Associates: $4 million (tie) (versus $4 million in Q4 2019 and $3.4 million in Q1 2019)
Van Scoyoc Associates: $4 million (tie) (versus $4.7 million in Q4 2019 and $3.7 million in Q1 2019)
Peck Madigan Jones: $3.9 million* (versus $3.9 million* in Q4 2019 and $3.9 million* in Q1 2019)
Crossroads Strategies: $3.8 million (versus $3.5 million in Q4 2019 and $3.1 million in Q1 2019)
American Continental Group: $3.7 million* (versus $3.4 million* in Q4 2019 and $3.3 million* in Q1 2019)
Thorn Run Partners: $3.4 million (versus $3.1 million in Q4 2019 and $2.9 million in Q1 2019)
Alpine Group: $3.4 million (versus $3.6 million in Q4 2019 and $3.4 million in Q1 2019)
WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN: Presidential election years aren’t traditionally strong ones for K Street — but lobbying firms posted strong numbers in the first quarter, even though the Senate was tied up for weeks during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. (Remember impeachment?) Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld saw its strongest quarter ever, with $12.6 million in lobbying revenue. Most of the 10 largest lobbying shops in town matched or exceeded their lobbying revenues for the fourth quarter of last year — which itself was a strong quarter for K Street as lobbyists rushed to influence a mammoth year-end spending bill that scrapped the medical device tax, among other measures.
— The big question: How much did the boom in coronavirus-related lobbying drive business? Hunter Bates, the co-leader of Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice, said in an interview that coronavirus-related work “had minimal impact” in the firm’s revenue in the first quarter. While the firm signed several new clients for coronavirus-related work, the bulk of the lobbying didn’t start until March, weeks before the end of the quarter. Rich Gold, who heads up Holland & Knight’s public policy and regulation group, said the firm had signed 20 new clients for coronavirus-tied work — but the revenue from those clients won’t show up until the second-quarter filing deadline.
— In the meantime, K Street is caught between a surge of new clients at many firms and the fear that business could fall off if the economy enters a prolonged recession. “The current rush of lobbying activity will probably be followed by some degree of economic downturn, and that’s never good for anyone’s business,” Andrew Rosenberg, a partner at Thorn Run Partners, wrote in an email to PI. “However, the fact that every public and private entity now realizes the importance of the federal government to their economic future should cut the other way for the better government affairs firms.”