When Influence magazine, a publication by Legal Times, reported its "Influence 25" survey ranking the top D.C. lobby shops by 1999 billings, Cassidy & Associates,
part of Shandwick Washington, came in at the No. 4 spot, with $24.5 million in billings, after three law firms.
But James Fabiani, president of Shandwick Washington and chairman and chief exec of Cassidy, grumbled to The Washington Post that all of Shandwick's related entities
registered as lobbyists (which include government relations firm Boland & Madigan and PR agencies Powell Tate and SWR Worldwide) should have been counted as a single agency.
That would raise billings to nearly $40 million and boost Cassidy to No. 1 on the list. Fabiani did not return repeated phone calls.
Influence listed the SW agencies separately because they register individually under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, according to publisher Ann Pelham. The lobby shops
"don't make it easy" to figure out who owns which, she adds.
(Pelham, 202/457-0686)