Key Professionals from Top Lobby Firm Lent Scrivner & Roth LLC Join Fast-Rising Dow Lohnes Government Strategies to Form Energy and Commerce Powerhouse

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dow Lohnes Government Strategies LLC (DLGS) today announced that three senior professionals from Lent Scrivner & Roth LLC (LS&R), a nationally recognized government relations and strategic consulting firm, will join DLGS on August 1, 2008, strengthening the fast-growing government relations firm’s bipartisan expertise in energy and commerce. LS&R’s Michael S. Scrivner and Norman F. Lent III both join DLGS as Executive Vice Presidents. Peter A. Leon joins DLGS as Vice President.

“Lent Scrivner & Roth is one of the premier lobbying firms in Washington, particularly in the areas of energy, environment, health and telecommunications,” said Stephen Sayle, CEO of DLGS and former Committee Counsel to House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-Texas). “We’ve taken the senior lobbyists of one of the most respected and accomplished firms in the energy and commerce space and made them part of our team. That’s great for us and even better for the clients we will serve.”

DLGS President Rick Kessler, a former Chief of Staff to Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), added, “Mike, Norm and Pete are great people and incredibly talented; adding them to the Dow Lohnes Government Strategies team gives us unparalleled experience and depth on the key energy, climate, telecom, Internet and health issues facing Congress. Add to that the resources available to us from the legal experts at Dow Lohnes, and it’s hard to imagine a lineup better equipped to represent clients before Congress – especially House Energy and Commerce and Senate Democratic leaders.”

Michael Scrivner said, “The Dow Lohnes Government Strategies team shares our commitment to effective, efficient and energetic representation. We are especially excited to work not only with Stephen and Rick, but also with Jessica Lenard, who, as a former senior advisor to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), possesses phenomenal policy and political expertise.”

A Capitol Hill veteran, Scrivner joined former Rep. Norman Lent (R-N.Y.) to form Lent & Scrivner in 1993. As Lent’s Chief of Staff, he was actively involved in Energy and Commerce Committee legislative issues. When Rep. Lent became Ranking Republican of the Energy and Commerce Committee in 1986, Scrivner worked as his liaison with the Committee staff on a broad range of issues including the Clean Air Act, Superfund, RCRA, legislation affecting the insurance and securities industries, telecommunications, health care and transportation. As a lobbyist, Scrivner has represented clients and worked to forge legislative solutions primarily in the areas of energy, the environment, telecommunications, health care and pharmaceutical policy.

Since joining LS&R in 1995, Norm Lent III has focused on energy, environment, telecommunications and health care issues and worked on major legislation, most notably the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the pending climate change legislation. Much of Lent’s work has involved key legislators from New York and New England. Prior to joining LS&R, Lent was an attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based firm of Dyer Ellis Joseph & Mills, where he represented health care, maritime transportation and energy clients before Congress and federal agencies and worked on major legislation including the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and the 1994 health care legislation. Prior to joining Dyer Ellis, Lent was a Legislative Assistant to the Honorable Connie Mack III (R-Fla.), where his responsibilities included telecommunications and a wide range of other issues.

Pete Leon brings to DLGS more than a decade of experience working for four Members of the U.S. House of Representatives with significant focus on telecommunications, health care and energy issues. Prior to joining LS&R, Leon served as Legislative Director to two Members of the New York delegation, most recently spending five and a half years with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and as Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. After leaving Capitol Hill in 2006, Leon became Vice President of COMPTEL, the nation’s trade association for competitive telecommunications providers, replacing Robert McDowell, who became a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. In his early years as a Hill staffer, Leon also worked for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), now Speaker of the House, and for Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.). During his tenure on Capitol Hill, Leon focused on appropriations, environment, housing, human rights and tax issues in addition to telecommunications, health care and energy.

Scrivner, Lent and Leon join a well-established DLGS team, which includes energy and environment expert Jessica Lenard, a former senior aide to Senate Assistant Majority Leader Durbin (D-Ill.) and Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who serves as DLGS Vice President. The Honorable Bob Carr (D-Mich.), a former Chair of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, is Senior Advisor to DLGS and Of Counsel to Dow Lohnes PLLC.

In addition to being Chairman Dingell’s former Chief of Staff, Rick Kessler also served on the staffs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Rep. Pallone, where he served as Legislative Director, and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Stephen Sayle also served as a senior aide on Ranking Member Barton’s personal staff before becoming one of Washington’s most highly-regarded energy lobbyists.

Together with the bipartisan team of Sayle and Kessler, DLGS is led by veteran attorney and lobbyist Kenneth Salomon, who serves as the firm’s Chairman, and is head of the government relations legal practice at Dow Lohnes PLLC.

About Dow Lohnes Government Strategies LLC

Established in April 2007, Dow Lohnes Government Strategies LLC is a Washington, D.C.-based non-legal affiliate of Dow Lohnes PLLC. From direct lobbying to grassroots initiatives, DLGS spans the full range of Congressional, executive branch and administrative agency lobbying for a wide range of clients, with a particular focus on energy, environmental, health care, media, telecommunications, information technology and higher education issues. The professionals of DLGS work closely with Members of Congress, senior federal officials and key staff members on behalf of their clients.

About Dow Lohnes PLLC

Dow Lohnes is a law firm with offices in Atlanta, GA and Washington, D.C. With a team of more than 150 attorneys and professionals, the firm serves clients in fields such as communications, new media, information technology, postsecondary education, sports, entertainment and real estate; with expertise in government relations, federal and state regulatory matters, litigation, antitrust, complex corporate transactions, finance, taxation, intellectual property, employee benefits and labor and employment.