The Cohen Group: News: Archives: 2004: K Street Confidential-Taking Costly Counsel From A Statesman


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March 29, 2004

K Street Confidential
Taking Costly Counsel From A Statesman
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington, welcome Lord Robertson.

The former secretary general of NATO and former defense secretary of Britain has quietly joined the K Street crowd. He is a senior counselor of the Cohen Group, which is headed by William S. Cohen, who was Bill Clinton's secretary of defense.

Robertson isn't a lobbyist in the traditional sense. You won't see him striding through the halls of Congress unless he's headed to a seminar. His job isn't to beg favors but to dispense advice — to tell major corporations how to deal with the governments that he knows best.

Lobbyists are often caricatured as fat, cigar-smoking men who shove hundred-dollar bills into the pockets of compliant lawmakers. A few influence-seekers fit that description, or parts of it. And they're fun to join for lunch if you get the chance.

But the thousands of people who work at the intersection of government and the rest of the world are far more diverse and interesting than the stereotype. George Robertson, the son and grandson of Scottish policemen who went on to lead one of the Western world's most vital institutions, is a perfect example.

In this column, which will appear here every other week, I will take a look at the people, the controversies and the trends that the denizens of Downtown D.C. are buzzing about — or soon will be. I intend to look beyond the caricature to explain how things really work and to describe what the machinations of the influence brokers mean to the rest of us. Robertson's arrival, for instance, is part of one of the fastest-growing and peculiar components of the government relations' field. Let's call it "The Statesman on Call" business.

In an interview, Robertson says of his new post: "The idea here is not to lobby." Instead he plans to unleash as strategic advice "the reservoir of information" that he acquired while in government.

That's nice work if you can get it.

The Cohen Group won't disclose Robertson's salary, but you can be fairly sure he's not working for chump change. The firm's 28 clients usually pay north of $350,000 a year, which is comparable to the annual retainers charged by the priciest lobbying shops in town. And Robertson won't have to show up for work very often.

The position, said Cohen, "won't take a great deal of his time." On average Robertson will spend three days each week as executive deputy chairman of London-based Cable and Wireless, a telecom company. We may see him here in the District five or six times a year.

Critics are outraged. "I'm sure there's some helpful and knowledgeable insight being provided," said Fred Wertheimer, a leading campaign-finance reformer. "But from the outside it looks like a way to get paid substantial sums of money for what these same individuals do on a part-time basis as pundits on TV."

And shoe-leather lobbyists are jealous. They only wish that they could just write a memo containing their cleverest suggestions then not worry if their advice succeeds.

Whatever the griping, Robertson is at the vanguard of the industry that makes its bread by informing corporations how to work their will on government. High-level, largely hands-free counsel of his type is a hot commodity. Pick any big name in foreign affairs from the past few administrations and you're likely to find a lucrative consultancy.

In addition to the Cohen Group, there's the Albright Group (led by former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright), the Scowcroft Group (headed by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft), Hills & Co. (chaired by Carla A. Hills, a former U.S. trade representative), Stonebridge International (headed by former national security adviser Samuel R. Berger) and Kissinger McLarty Associates (led by Clinton's former adviser on Latin America, Mack McLarty).

The granddaddy of them all, of course, is Kissinger Associates in New York (and a partner of McLarty's firm), chaired by Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state. Many of the major law firms in the District also boast similar practices.

This proliferation reflects the increasing globalization of business and the dearth of expertise about how governments abroad deal with foreign owners. Multinational corporations aren't neophytes in such matters, but they can rarely forecast the regulatory and political outlook from the same elevation as, say, a former senior official like Lord Robertson.

"There's a need for a higher-powered lens on the rest of the world," says Anthony Harrington, president of Stonebridge International, "especially in emerging markets."

It also doesn't hurt to have someone as famous as a former cabinet officer to help open doors. Wendy Sherman, a principal of the Albright Group, acknowledges that Albright herself isn't above taking a meeting with a foreign official on behalf of a paying client. "That is a part of what we do," Sherman said.

Most of what these firms do, however, is loftier than that. The Cohen Group, like its many sister firms in the field, doesn't disclose the names of its clients. But it sanitized a few examples to help this column illustrate how it makes its money.

For example, it assisted a U.S. agricultural group to export a commodity to China by devising what it describes as a "multi-year, comprehensive strategy involving members of the diplomatic community, the agricultural regulatory process and multiple ministries in the Chinese government."

The firm also helped a biotech company to win government funding for vaccines to combat bioterrorism. "The effort included helping our client understand both a complex contracting process and the objectives and priorities of government officials," the Cohen Group said in a written statement.

Such activities are in huge demand. The Cohen Group started in 2001 with four professionals including Cohen. Now it has 18, including the former supreme allied commander in Europe, retired Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston. And Cohen says he's always on the lookout for other top-level folks.

Hiring Robertson was quite a coup. The charming Scot, who received a life peerage from the queen in August 1999 and also served for 21 years in the House of Commons, said: "A lot of organizations wanted me." But he chose to go with the Cohen Group in large part because of his close friendship with Cohen. Robertson said the two men "bonded" when they served as defense secretaries on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

But even though they're working at the same company, they won't be seeing each other a great deal. Robertson said he'll be marketing "informed judgment" and that doesn't necessarily involve "sitting behind the Washington desk."

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