Regulatory and Government Affairs

Stevens & Lee’s Regulatory and Government Affairs Department is based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, across from the State Capitol. Our on-the-hill team of government affairs specialists is supported by the collective experience of lawyers from across the firm and assists clients in evaluating alternative regulatory and legislative options, providing legislative and agency contacts, developing and implementing advocacy programs, analyzing and tracking legislative and agency matters and providing legal advice on PAC and state lobbying requirements. This team serves a number of national and regional accounts.

Our practice is headed by a former general counsel to the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Among our government affairs specialists is the former Senate Majority Leader who served 24 years in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, a former Executive Director of the Appropriations Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Health and Welfare Committee with over 25 years of experience in Harrisburg, a former Executive Director of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Insurance Committee and the Liquor Control Committee, and a former Director of Legislative Affairs in the Governor’s Office overseeing the Department of Human Services and Department of Aging who also served as a Legislative Assistant in the Pennsylvania Senate to both the Majority Whip and Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee.

Our government affairs team has significant expertise in government finance, which allows us to better understand the problems of those who govern. We have been able to present elected officials with ideas they have used to assist them in their roles as public servants, while simultaneously allowing us to meet the needs of our clients.

Because of our breadth and depth of experience, our team is able to provide clients with expertise and representation at all levels of the executive and legislative branches of state government. We have worked on countless pieces of legislation through introduction, amendment and the final stages of passage and have monitored thousands on behalf of our clients. One piece of legislation we initiated permits the zoos of Pennsylvania to benefit from vanity license plates depicting a zoo scene issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Another permits property and casualty insurance companies to convert from mutual to stock form and access the capital markets. Still another permits Pennsylvania’s third class counties to enact legislation imposing a tax on hotel room occupancy in order to provide revenues to build sports complexes and civic centers.

Our government affairs team has expertise in representing public utilities in state and federal regulatory matters. We also represent numerous financial institutions from a regulatory perspective, and monitor and advise financial institutions and their holding companies and non-bank financial institutions, such as mortgage companies and consumer loan companies. We regularly represent our clients in front of state regulatory agencies having jurisdiction over these entities.

In addition to public utilities and financial institutions, we represent a number of multinational and regional accounts across a variety of business sectors, including health care institutions, insurance companies, institutions of higher education, pharmaceutical manufacturers, transportation and public safety, consulting, telecommunications and consumer products, among others.

Our regulatory and administrative agency practice regularly represents clients before the Pennsylvania Utility Commission (PUC), the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Board of Claims and other regulatory agencies. We also serve as long-time general counsel to the Board of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), a national leader in providing affordable access to higher education for Pennsylvania’s students. We also act as pro bono counsel to Best Buddies International, a world-wide mentoring organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities founded and led by Anthony Kennedy Shriver.

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