In an article highlighting D.C.'s most successful boutique lobbying agencies, Roll Call cites Thorn Run Partners as part of a group of "nimble K Street entrepreneurs who understand the changing business of influencing Washington and can easily morph into high-level, team-oriented client consiglieres." Despite the challenging political environment in Washington, the article notes that Thorn Run has continued to report more revenue out of an "increasingly shrinking pot" of federal lobbying disclosures.
Roll Call: Revenge of the Little Shops
For three years in a row, the total amount of on-the-record federal lobbying cash has slumped. For three years in a row, Thorn Run Partners’ piece of that total has jumped. Ditto for [four other boutique firms]. What gives?
Somehow, though, amid congressional stalemate, a gloomy national economy and an effort on K Street to push advocacy work to the underground, these firms have reported more money out of an increasingly shrinking pot of fees made public under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
“It’s not that lobbyists serve less of a function; it’s that influencing has become more difficult,” said Thorn Run co-founder Andy Rosenberg, whose clients include the Continuing Medical Education Coalition. “All eyes continue to be on Washington. But sometimes it’s about, ‘How do you figure out which official in an agency is really driving a particular policy and how do you influence that person?’”
[…] Rosenberg, a Democrat who previously worked at Patton Boggs and other firms, said some of the bigger shops struggle with how to illustrate their value to clients. “The older, more traditional firms, they sometimes don’t even know how to define success,” he said.