Government & Political Law

Davis Wright Tremaine represents clients in state legislatures regarding pending legislation and before executive agencies with respect to rulemaking proceedings and administrative law matters.

Many of our lawyers have served as elected officials or senior staff and have years of experience in developing and implementing legislation and regulation of all kinds. This perspective, and the relationships that come with it, enable us to help clients in sophisticated ways.

We are especially good at forming creative approaches to improve our clients’ business by identifying legislative or regulatory changes, developing coalitions to support them and then working the process to conclusion.

Our services include the following:

• Strategic advice
• Relationship building
• Federal and state regulatory advocacy
• Coalition building
• Campaign finance compliance
• Lobbyist compliance
• Legislative and regulatory drafting
• Election law compliance and strategy
• Initiative process and compliance

We represent businesses, trade associations, political committees, and candidates in election disputes, including in complying with campaign finance and lobbying disclosure laws, recounts, and election contests.

Our clients include proponents and opponents of initiative measures and referenda throughout the election campaign process. We prepare, draft, and analyze proposed measures to help our clients’ measures survive legal challenges and achieve our clients' interests. In addition, we collaborate with client campaign teams throughout the ballot title process to obtain the most favorable titles—for or against adoption, depending on our clients' goals.

Our firm has nationally recognized teams that serve a number of highly regulated industries, including healthcare, energy, communications, finance and hospitality, and technology in disputes with the government. In addition to decades of experience working with governmental bodies on behalf of clients, many of our teams include lawyers who have previously served in government at the federal, state or local level. This gives us the insight and judgment to handle the most sensitive administrative proceedings, investigations and preemption matters for clients in those industries.

We also help clients, regulated or not, with environmental and other agency investigations, white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions, tax disputes and government contracts cases.

• Administrative: We seek favorable rulemakings from federal and state administrative agencies and in responding to or challenging new rules on behalf of our clients. Our relationships with agency leadership and staff in such diverse areas as healthcare, communications, tax and insurance help us resolve issues at the highest level, if necessary, before a challenge becomes necessary.
• Government investigations: We help individuals and companies respond to grand jury investigations, government investigative demands, subpoenas and search warrants, as well as in facing ongoing investigations by a variety of federal agencies.
• White collar: We defend corporate executives, directors, officers and other individuals against white-collar criminal prosecutions throughout the country in federal and state courts. Our experience includes qui tam and other civil litigation or administrative proceedings.
• Government ethics: We represent elected officials, candidates, and lobbyists in government ethics investigations and proceedings.
• Federal preemption: We assist companies in telecommunications, healthcare and other industries in seeking federal preemption of unfavorable state and local statutes and regulations.
• Tax: We represent individuals and businesses in resolving local, state and federal tax disputes. Our experience encompasses all phases of the tax assessment, collection and litigation processes.
• Government contracts: We represent government contractors in bid protests and contract disputes before the General Accounting Office, Boards of Contract Appeals and the Court of Federal Claims, as well as in federal district and appellate courts. We have also assisted debarred or suspended contractors in reinstatement negotiations.