Private Equity Trade Association Adds Former Cantor Adviser to Lobby
The Private Equity Growth Capital Council, a trade association, has hired Blank Rome Government Relations to lobby on legislative and regulatory policies affecting private equity, especially in the areas of banking, finance and taxation. Shimon Stein (former senior policy adviser to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor), and Michael Hogan Jr. (former deputy chief of staff to ex-Sen. Ben Nelson) will be the lobbyists. In the fourth quarter of 2013, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council used several lobby firms, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP ($110,000), Capitol Tax Partners LLP ($90,000), Debevoise Plimpton LLP ($90,000) and Ernst & Young LLP (less than $5,000).
In new lobby reports, Holland & Knight LLP has reported it was paid $50,000 in the first quarter of 2013 to lobby for Freedom To Marry Action Inc. The firm lobbied on “support and passage of the Respect for Marriage Act; educate members of the House and Senate on harm caused by the Defense of Marriage law; appropriations riders on marriage issues.”
In other registrations, the Conafay Group, which assists life science clients in their government relations goals, registered to lobby for Blackbox Biometrics Inc. (NY). Blackbox Biometrics develops sensor technology for the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Conafay and its lobbyist, Elizabeth Barrows, will lobby on defense issues, including “Encourage utilization of commercially available blast overpressure gauges to measure Warfighters exposures in training and deployed situations.”
