Patton Boggs

Infobox_Company
company_name = Patton Boggs LLP
company_
company_type =
company_slogan =
location = Washington, DC
foundation = 1962; founded by James R. Patton, Jr
CEO = Thomas Hale Boggs , Jr., Chairman,
num_employees = 1000+
industry = Professional services
revenue = $310,130,000 USD (2007)
profit = profit$19,130,000 USD (2007)
homepage = [http://www.pattonboggs.com/ www.pattonboggs.com]

Patton Boggs LLP is a law firm and lobby shop associated with Qorvis Communications and specialized in international and trade law with over 200 international clients from over 70 countries. In addition to their Washington, D.C. headquarters, they maintain offices in New York City, Newark, Anchorage, Dallas, Denver, Northern Virginia, and Doha, Qatar.

History

According to its website, the firm was founded in 1962 by James R. Patton, Jr and joined soon after by George Blow and then Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr. Again according to the website, it has "participated in the formation of every major multilateral trade agreement considered by Congress." [http://www.pattonboggs.com/about/Overview/ Patton Boggs "About Us"] Notable associates have included John Breaux, former Democratic U.S. Senator and Representative from Louisiana, and Benjamin Ginsberg, former national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee.

Controversies

Patton Boggs has lobbied on behalf of the dietary supplement company Metabolife International. According to "Associated Press", "Patton Boggs earned millions helping project reassurances to Congress and its customers that Metabolife products were safe. Patton Boggs attorneys helped prepare carefully worded responses to regulators. Between 2001 and this year, Metabolife paid Patton Boggs $1.8 million to lobby Congress."Seth Hettena, [http://www.saturdaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0490n Washington lobbying firm drawn into probe of Metabolife] ," "Associated Press", October 16, 2004. (dead link)]

Patton Boggs' work for Metabolife has resulted in legal scrutiny: "One former and four current Patton Boggs attorneys were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in San Diego, court documents say. Prosecutors allege company founder Michael Ellis lied about Metabolife's safety record in a 1998 letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which documents say Patton Boggs attorneys helped draft. ... In mid 2002, Patton Boggs lobbyist Lanny Davis wrote a senator whose subcommittee was investigating Metabolife that the company had received only 78 'unproven, anecdotal allegations' of strokes, heart attacks, seizures and deaths." Company documents released just one week later revealed that the number of health complaints actually numbered in the thousands.

In April 2002, Members of Congress objected to a video prepared by Patton Boggs promoting exploration for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, hosted on the U.S. Interior Department's web site. The Department's distribution of the video was in apparent violation of a law forbidding federal agencies to engage in PR activities "designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress." The Department is becoming "a cinema house for lobbyists," says Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey. "The Interior Department should not be spreading oil company propaganda any more than the Department of Energy should be promoting Enron stock," he said. "It's not their job." [http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2002.html#1018587601 Spin of the Day: April 2002 | Center for Media and Democracy ] ]

According to the Haitian newspaper "Le Nouvelliste" [ [http://petionvillehaiti.blogspot.com/2007/06/ac-traduzco-del-francs-al-espaol-un.html Le Nouvelliste] ] Patton Boggs was hired in 2007 by the Vicini family, one of the most influential and wealthiest families in the Dominican Republic, to prevent the screening of the documentary The Price of Sugar which depicts the living conditions of Haitian immigrant workers on the family's sugar plantations as well as death threats against Christopher Hartley, a Catholic priest working on behalf of the Haitian immigrants.

References

Additional reading

*Julie Gozan, [http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1993/04/mm0493_05.html "The Torturers' Lobby"] , "Multinational Monitor", April 1993.
*The Center for Public Integrity, [http://www.publicintegrity.org/527/search.aspx?act=com&orgid=2846&comid=479r "Expenditures to individuals and organizations affiliated with Patton Boggs from Republican Governors Association"] , 2003.
*Tim Mazzucca, [http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2003/09/01/newscolumn1.html "Patton Boggs picks unlikely spot for international debut"] , "Washington Business Journal", August 29, 2003.
*The Center for Responsive Politics, [http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/lobby00/toplobby02.asp "Patton Boggs LLP"] , 1999-2000 election cycle contributions.
*Felice Wagner, [http://www.imakenews.com/sugarcrestreport/e_article000232987.cfm "Patton Boggs' Rain Man: An Interview with Mark Cowan"] , March 16, 2004.

External links

* [http://www.pattonboggs.com/ Patton Boggs website]
* [http://schema-root.org/commerce/corporation/legal/patton_boggs/ Schema-root.org: ] current news feed for Patton Boggs