WASHINGTON, DC: The MWW Group has added legislative affairs vets Edward Braman and Christine LaPaille to the staff of its DC office.
WASHINGTON, DC: The MWW Group has added legislative affairs vets
Edward Braman and Christine LaPaille to the staff of its DC office.
Braman, who joins as senior public affairs director, had previously
served as director of the National Council of Senior Citizens’
organizing and member relations department. More recently, he had been a
group manager at Selz/Seabolt Communications.
LaPaille, who joins the DC office as a senior counselor, was shifted
over from the agency’s Chicago outpost, where she was SVP and general
manager.
According to EVP and principal Bob Sommer, the arrival of Braman and
LaPaille reflects MWW’s lobbying and public affairs growth. The
Washington office billed dollars 1.5 million from new and existing
accounts in the first half of the year. By comparison, the total take in
1998 for the office was dollars 2 million, all of it stemming from
government affairs.
Sommer stressed the importance of broadening the DC office’s government
affairs focus. ’You can’t just run a government affairs campaign and
hope to win,’ he said. ’Clients are looking for a mix of government
affairs and public affairs. They realize that the old ways of doing
business in Washington are changing.’
Among MWW’s prominent DC clients are Bacardi Martini (dollars 140,000 in
1998 lobbying fees), GAF (dollars 320,000) and Puerto Ricans in Civic
Action (dollars 600,000).
One new challenge, however, comes in the form of MWW client The
Coalition for Asbestos Resolution. The group supports legislation
sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde and Senators Bob Torricelli and John
Ashcroft which would place greater emphasis on mediation as a means of
resolving oft-litigated asbestos-exposure disputes.
