Suite Talk August 19, 2008
By: Politico
Goldman Sachs strengthens D.C. ties
What more could a leading global investment banking firm need? How about a pair of Washington-based vice presidents for Goldman Sachs’ government affairs team — Todd M. Malan and Ken Connolly?
Malan, who starts next month, is the former president and CEO of the Organization for International Investment, the leading association of U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered abroad. Earlier, he was head of government and press relations at the European-American Chamber of Commerce and was a congressional liaison in the office of the U.S. trade representative under President George H.W. Bush.
Connolly, who started in June, came from Mintz Levin, where he was senior vice president of government relations. Additionally, he worked in the Senate for 13 years, most recently as staff director of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
At Goldman Sachs, he’s focusing on energy and environmental issues.
Copyright champ tacks on new role
As an amateur photographer, Drinker Biddle & Reath partner Janet Fries understands the artist’s perspective when it comes to intellectual property cases.
Her copyright expertise, in fact, has earned her an additional position: chairwoman of the American Bar Association’s Copyright and New Technologies Committee. It’s an offshoot of the association’s 22,000-lawyer/member intellectual property section and the merger of two committees that dealt with Internet copyrights.
Fries will continue at Drinker Biddle as she serves her one-year leadership stint on the bar committee.
Aiding her as ABA committee vice chairman is Phil Cardinale, also of Drinker Biddle. Their closeness will be an asset, Fries said, since they’ll be able to communicate quickly and easily when it comes to preparing and collaborating on bar association reports — and they can draw in some of their colleagues to help.
While Fries is the artist, Cardinale may be the wordsmith, holding a Ph.D. in English literature from Oxford.
Stanton’s new star
Patrick Brady takes his health care prowess to a new job at the PR firm Stanton Communications, where he’ll be a vice president. Most recently, he was executive director of Citizens for Long Term Care, a coalition of health care providers, insurers and workers.
Transitioning to a PR beast like Stanton should be easy for Brady, since he’s already done communications for some big pharmaceutical firms, national medical associations and leading health care systems. And he’s implemented PR campaigns on medical technology and low-income access to prescriptions.
Brady lives in Baltimore, where Stanton has an office, but he’ll commute to work in Washington.
More crusaders for social justice
The Center for Community Change, a nonprofit championing the values of Robert F. Kennedy, has expanded its new policy unit: Steve Savner is the new director of public policy, and Kate Kahan is now legislative director.
Savner, a lawyer, comes to the center with experience in dealing with the federal food stamp program at the Center for Law and Social Policy. Kahan, a longtime women’s rights activist, was a welfare expert on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
From its U — not K — Street office, the group pushes policies of economic justice, especially for minorities.
Hot off the presses!
Covington & Burling has been named “One of the Best Law Firms for Women” for the second straight year by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers.
Sharing the honors are seven other Washington-based law firms: Arent Fox, Arnold & Porter, Hogan & Hartson, Miller & Chevalier, Patton Boggs, Steptoe & Johnson and WilmerHale.
The rankings are based on a number of factors, including maternity and paternity leave, emergency and on-site child care, alternative work arrangements, and the ratio of woman partners and associates.
According to the survey, Covington spends $2.5 million annually to subsidize a child care center in Washington, and lawyer-moms can take two weeks of paid pre-maternity leave as well as 18 weeks of paid maternity leave.
Guess who’s gone all Web 2.0?
Here’s a new site for your Google bookmarks: Political GPS at womblepoliticallaw.blogspot.com. The folks over at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice have joined the blog bandwagon.
Bloggers extraordinaire include former Federal Election Commission general counsel Larry Norton and former FEC deputy general counsel Jim Kahl. The blog aims to provide a “weekly roadmap to the world of political law.”
“This is a first foray into blogging, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Norton e-mailed Suite Talk. “I think I can provide a unique insider’s perspective.”
— Jacqueline Klingebiel and Ariel Alexovich
Suite Talk is a regular Politico feature that follows career changes, client developments and other movements in the public affairs sector. Please send news items and photos to suitetalk@politico.com.