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Lobbying by Law Firms: A Study of Lobbying by National Law Firms in Canberra 1
Author(s) -
Darke Matthew
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.1997.tb02487.x
Subject(s) - commercial law , government (linguistics) , politics , law , preference , political law , legal profession , federal law , public law , business , public administration , political science , economics , private law , black letter law , legislation , philosophy , linguistics , microeconomics
This article examines the way in which national law firms lobby the federal government from their Canberra offices. It is based on extensive interviews with lobbyists from those law firms, other commercial lobbyists in Canberra and legal professional bodies. The article begins by establishing the unique nature of law firm lobbying. In particular, it looks at the technical skills law firm lobbyists possess, their access to specialist legal knowledge and their preference for administrative, over political, lobbying. The development of law firm lobbying is then discussed. This centres around changes to the legal profession, federal business laws and federal government decision‐making. The article concludes by suggesting that law firm lobbying both reflects and stimulates changes in government decision‐making and will grow in importance as the legal profession in Canberra grows.