This isn't how things usually get done around here. Lobbyists frequently move from job to job, taking clients with them. Suing a former lobbyist over clients is extraordinary, and this suit -- filled with allegations, financial information and e-mails such as the one from an executive saying the company would make his departure "ugly" -- is a rare window into matters usually settled privately and quietly. In her deposition, Molinari describes the decision to file suit as a "controversial" one between the Washington Group and its corporate owners Ketchum, a unit of Omnicom Group. That's not surprising, given how unusual such a lawsuit is on K Street.
The lawsuit "is breaking norms, serious norms, in Washington," says James Thurber, an American University professor who studies lobbying. The lawsuit exposes a gulf in understanding between lobbying firms and the public relations companies that now own many of them, which may not understand how Washington works, he says.
-- Legal Times, April 11, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
"Experts expressed astonishment..."
"Lobbyists switch jobs all the time and usually take their clients with them. But a lawsuit in D.C.'s federal district court is challenging that practice, in a way that could rock the capital.
Without fanfare late last year, the Washington Group, a lobbying subsidiary of the multinational advertising firm Omnicom Group, sued one of its senior vice presidents for filching corporate clients when he jumped to another firm. The plaintiff is seeking more than half a million dollars in damages. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has refused three times to prevent the transfer of clients. But the case against Harry A. Sporidis, now lobbying for the law firm Powell Goldstein, continues to march toward trial. Experts expressed astonishment that the dispute had gone to court at all."
-- The Washington Post, January 15, 2008
Without fanfare late last year, the Washington Group, a lobbying subsidiary of the multinational advertising firm Omnicom Group, sued one of its senior vice presidents for filching corporate clients when he jumped to another firm. The plaintiff is seeking more than half a million dollars in damages. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has refused three times to prevent the transfer of clients. But the case against Harry A. Sporidis, now lobbying for the law firm Powell Goldstein, continues to march toward trial. Experts expressed astonishment that the dispute had gone to court at all."
-- The Washington Post, January 15, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
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