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In politics, lobbying, persuasion, interest representation, government relations, or government affairs and sometimes legislative relations, legislative affairs, or advocacy, is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies, but also judges of the judiciary. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact in cooperation with support staff that may not meet directly face-to-face, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals on a personal level in their capacity as private citizens, it is also practiced by corporations in the private sector serving their own interests, by non-profits and non-governmental organizations in the voluntary sector, by fellow legislators or government officials influencing each other through legislative affairs in the public sector, and by advocacy groups. It is also an industry known by many of the aforementioned names, and has a near complete overlap with the public affairs industry. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, for example amateur lobbyists such as a voter or a bloc of voters within their electoral district acting as private citizens; while others like professional lobbyists may engage in lobbying as a business or profession. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation, regulation, or other government decisions, actions, or policies on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job. Governments often define "lobbying" for legal purposes, and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in which the personal interest of an individual or organization might adversely affect a duty owed to make decisions for the benefit of a third party.
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is a pro-industry advocacy organization founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Whelan.
Business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services starting with management training and office space and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.
Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry. During the same period, its facility in Omaha, Nebraska, boomed, making the city's meatpacking industry the largest in the nation by 1959. In connection with its meatpacking operations, the company also ventured into pharmaceuticals and soap manufacturing, introducing Dial soap in 1948.
Richard B. Berman is an American lawyer, public relations executive, and former lobbyist. Through his public affairs firm, Berman and Company, he runs several industry-funded non-profit organizations such as the Center for Consumer Freedom, the Center for Union Facts, and the Employment Policies Institute.
Proskauer Rose LLP is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1875 and currently employs more than 800 attorneys in twelve offices worldwide.
Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace.
The 101 California Street Shooting was a mass shooting on July 1, 1993, in San Francisco, California. The killings sparked a number of legal and legislative actions that were precursors to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, H.R. 3355, 103rd Congress. The Act took effect in 1994 and expired in September 2004 after the expiration of a sunset provision. At the time, the incident was the deadliest mass shooting in the Bay Area's history, being surpassed 28 years later by the 2021 San Jose shooting.
The Center for Union Facts (CUF) is an American interest group that is critical of labor unions. It is one of several advocacy and public relations groups founded by Richard Berman, whose Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm, Berman and Company, specializes in research, communications and advertising. The Washington Post describes CUF as "part of a constellation of nonprofit groups Berman created to carry out corporate messages."
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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups.
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP is a Los Angeles-based law firm of more than 450 attorneys and other professionals founded in 1965. The firm earned revenues of $316.9 million in 2017. Donna L. Wilson is the firm's Chief Executive and Managing Partner. On June 11, 2018, Manatt announced that Wilson had been elected to succeed William Quicksilver as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner. Wilson assumed the leadership role on July 1, 2019, at which time Quicksilver became the Managing Partner Emeritus.
JLL Partners is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions and leveraged recapitalizations of middle-market companies. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and was founded in 1987. Since its founding JLL Partners has committed approximately $4.7 billion across seven funds. JLL invests in various industries including food and consumer products, automotive parts, health care, media and telecommunications, commodity and specialty chemicals, building products, transportation, and industrial manufacturing and distribution. The company tends to focus on companies requiring an operational turnaround.
The Employment Policies Institute is a fiscally conservative, non-profit American think tank that conducts and publishes research on employment issues, particularly aimed towards reducing the minimum wage. It was established in 1991 by Richard Berman, and it has been described as "a nonprofit research group that studies issues of entry-level employment."
Steven Eisman is an American businessman and investor known for having shorted collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), thereby profiting from the collapse of the US housing bubble in 2007–2008.
Cohen & Gresser LLP is an international law firm with offices in New York City, Paris, Washington D.C., and London. The firm represents clients in complex litigation and corporate transactions throughout the world. Founded in 2002, the firm has grown to seventy lawyers in eight practice groups: Corporate; Employment; Intellectual Property & Technology; Litigation and Arbitration; Privacy and Data Security; Real Estate; Tax; White Collar Defense. The firm's clients include Fortune 500 companies and major financial institutions across a broad spectrum of industries throughout the world, and it has litigated and negotiated against some of the nation's largest law firms.
Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift decision-making power from corporate managers and corporate shareholders to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, customers, suppliers, neighbours and the broader public. No single definition or approach encompasses economic democracy, but most proponents claim that modern property relations externalize costs, subordinate the general well-being to private profit and deny the polity a democratic voice in economic policy decisions. In addition to these moral concerns, economic democracy makes practical claims, such as that it can compensate for capitalism's inherent effective demand gap.
Michele Simon is a public health lawyer who has been researching and writing about food policy since 1996. Her work has been featured on CNBC, CBS News, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Reuters, and Forbes. She has written extensively on the politics of food, and her book, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, was published by Nation Books in 2006. Simon has also written extensively about alcohol policy.
The Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and prior to that the Guest Choice Network, is an American non-profit entity founded by Richard Berman. It describes itself as "dedicated to protecting consumer choices and promoting common sense."
References
- ↑ "Website of the Center for Consumer Freedom". Archived from the original on 2005-06-23. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- 1 2 Storm, Stephanie (2010-06-17). "Nonprofit Advocate Carves Out a For-Profit Niche". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ↑ Business Week magazine online, Feb 27, 2006
- 1 2 3 4 60 Minutes episode: "Meet Rick Berman, A.K.A. Dr. Evil".
- 1 2 3 4 USA Today article: "Got a nasty fight? Here's your man".
- 1 2 Warner, Melanie (2005-06-12). "Striking Back at the Food Police". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ↑ O'Brien, Dennis (2006-10-06). "Standing Up For the Big Guys". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ↑ Lipton, Eric (10 February 2014). "Fight over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties". The New York Times.