Brownstein, Akin Lead Lobbying Growth During Congress Slowdown

Big Law firms Brownstein Hyatt, Akin and Holland & Knight broke their annual lobbying revenue records in 2023, a sign that the business community is active on Capitol Hill even as the path to legislation gets onerous.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck reported $62.6 million in federal lobbying revenue last year, on the back of a firm record $16 million in earnings during the fourth quarter. The firm’s major Washington clients in 2023 included Johnson & Johnson and the Saudi Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, the chief subsidizer of the LIV Golf circuit.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which is lobbying for artificial intelligence unicorn OpenAI and Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel, reported over $54.7 million in federal lobbying revenue in 2023, a 3% increase from the prior year. Nippon Steel hired Akin to “manage the politics” surrounding the company’s December bid to purchase United States Steel Corp., said Brian Pomper, leader of Akin’s lobbying group and a former Democratic Senate staffer.

The lobbying dollar figures grew even as the pace of legislation slowed to a crawl with divided control of Congress. The body enacted just 34 public laws in 2023, the lowest total since 2013, when Congress passed 72, according to data published by Mehlman Consulting.

Still, overall lobbying spending through September surpassed $3 billion for the second year in a row, Open Secrets data show. The uptick in lobbying spending began in 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic prompted major spending packages.

“Companies will face issues, problems, and they’ll look to politics to solve them,” Pomper said. The slower pace of bill passage “doesn’t impact that,” he said.

Holland & Knight, with clients including Smithfield Foods Inc. and the City of San Francisco, reported $48 million in revenue, up 10% from 2022.

Some law firms, however, recorded a decline in lobby receipts.

K&L Gates reported $4 million in lobbying revenue in the fourth quarter, adding up to $17.5 in all of 2023, the disclosures show. The total was down from $21.4 million reported in 2022.

Other firms that saw slight declines were Squire Patton Boggs, which reported $22.4 million in annual revenue after earning more than $25 million the previous year.

Hogan Lovells reported $8.9 million in federal lobbying revenue, down from the $11.3 million it earned in 2022. The firm’s clients include US Steel, which hired the firm and K&L Gates this month as it seeks to complete a $14.1 billion sale to Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel that attracted the ire of some US lawmakers.

2024 Outlook

Historically, election years coincide with a decline in lobbying activity, as lawmakers spend more time outside of Washington. But the pace of work on the Hill doesn’t suggest any marked drop is imminent in 2024, said Rich Gold, a Holland & Knight public policy leader.

Implementation of landmark bills such as the 2021 infrastructure legislation will continue to drive activity, along with the onslaught of regulations coming out of the Biden administration, Gold said.

A bipartisan tax package that includes roughly $80 billion in business and child tax breaks moved through a House committee on Friday, but it faces a long road to passage. Lobbyists also predicted that companies will begin engaging with Congress on the 2017 tax law provisions that are set to expire in 2025.

“While a presidential election year can bring challenges, it can also present opportunities,” said Will Moschella, Brownstein’s government relations co‐chair. “We anticipate growth in our tax, veterans, energy, healthcare and defense practices.”

Big priority items such as government funding deals and the national defense reauthorizations are carrying broader issue sets because fewer bills are getting across the finish line, lobbyists have said. At the same time, the Biden administration is instituting a litany of regulations affecting everything from the auto to manufacturing sectors. Artificial intelligence and US-China relations are also gaining increased focus.

“These are really uncertain times, and that is amplified by the fact that we have some really consequential policy issues animating the country,” said K&L Gates lobbyist Karishma Page. “It’s almost imperative that the government is one of many companies’ stakeholders.”