"This isn't how things usually get done around here..."

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