Thursday, January 20, 2011

Creating new revenue- Lobbying cross-marketing

Creating new revenue- Lobbying cross-marketing

With a new governor in Florida and lots of new faces in the legislature, people working in and around government are awaiting significant changes. Some of which are already being established.

What does this mean to your practice and your clients goals and needs?

Having to deal with everything from construction, transportation, healthcare, education, economic development, real estate, land use, insurance, corporate taxes there are issues on the table that will affect everyone and every business that does business in the state.

Living and working in Tallahassee, I speak with a lot of attorneys and lobbyists, and many national and regional firms have offices to help facilitate their clients legislative needs. Many, however, do not, or have conflicts that precludes them from handling the legal and lobbying work. A lot of firms simply are not set up to handle how lobbyists bill and develop clients vs. how attorneys do. Some attorneys that I have spoken with don’t want to send their lobbying issues to another firm for fear that once that firm starts working with their client they will take their legal work.

Several attorneys that I have spoken with have found huge advantages to identifying a lobbyist that is outside of a law firm, however, and/or using different lobbyists to handle issues specifically with the House, Senate, agency level, cabinet, committees, and Governor’s Office.

Three reasons:

Lobbyists are your eyes and ears for upcoming legal issues that will require your services for your client. Often risk mitigation.

Independent and focused on specific legislative needs of your client.

A value-add for and deeper relationship with your clients. The more service options that you can offer, the more they will use you for their legal needs.

In full disclosure, I am not a lobbyist, and do not collect a fee from any lobbyists. If you would like to explore how this could be an additional source of revenue for your practice, I would be happy to recommend the names of lobbyists, with high integrity and several years of experience, that meet your clients specific needs within which ever branch of government that their needs rest.

Feel free to contact me at: Andrew@Wilcox-legal.com, 850-893-8984