Squire Patton Boggs

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Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) is an international law and lobbying firm with 46 offices in 21 countries.

It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs.

Lobbying services

According to official US records, SPB earned $19m in 2016 from lobbying services in the US ($25m in 2015; $32m in 2014).[1]

Brexit services

SPB has a dedicated Brexit service and website: www.brexitlegal.com.

It says: 'Since the UK’s decision to leave the European Union in June 2016 we have been providing our clients with support including undertaking careful analysis of the potential impact Brexit will have on them and the industries in which they operate.'[2]

Areas of law it says it can help with include 'international trade, regulated industries (e.g. financial services), tax and competition'.

Brexit team: political connections

SPB says its team to help steer clients through Brexit uncertainty includes:

'sitting members of the UK Parliament, former United States Trade Representative and WTO officials, Members of the European Parliament and senior regulators, as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA) officials, ex-ambassadors and national government ministers.[3]

It isn't clear which UK Parliamentarians it currently employs.

It employed Conservative MP Jake Berry until he was appointed Northern Powerhouse Minister (for the Department of Communities and Local Government) in June 2017. Berry also accepted a donation of £10,000 in December 2015 from the firm for the sponsorship of a private party for MPs, which Berry co-hosted with three other MPs.[4] In June 2015, Berry – then PPS to Greg Hands, spoke at a SPB panel discussion on ‘Conservative Party Manifesto Pledges – What Will the Impact be for the UK Real Estate Market’.[5]

In October 2017 SPB's Jeremy Cape tweeted that he was very pleased to have another Northern Powerhouse minister (and ex-International Development minister) James Wharton join the SPB team. Wharton lost his seat in Parliament in the 2017 general election. On 23 October 2017, an article on Brexit by Wharton was posted on SPB's blog.[6] Wharton describes himself as a consultant to Squire Patton Boggs from October 2017.[7]

Former DfID minister, James Wharton joins the team

In July 2016 SPB hosted a British Chamber of Commerce event featuring Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, then minister for Energy and Intellectual Property. The event was pitched as an opportunity to meet Neville-Rolfe and hear her thoughts on 'Brexit implications for trade and investment'.[8]

Brexit team

Listed contacts for SPB's Brexit team:

Northern Powerhouse

Squire Patton Boggs is involved in the UK government's Northern Powerhouse programme, which aims to boost the economy of the North of England and Wales as part of the government’s industrial strategy.

  • As stated above, since Autumn 2017, Squire Patton Boggs has employed former Northern Powerhouse minister, James Wharton, as a consultant. It also employed Conservative MP Jake Berry until he was appointed Northern Powerhouse Minister in June 2017.
  • The firm's Infrastructure Partner, Andrew Herring, sat on the UK Northern Powerhouse Advisory Board. At some point between June and December 2017, his name was removed from the list of Advisory Board members. By December 2017 the Advisory Board webpage had also been 'archived', suggesting it has been wrapped up.[9] The Advisory Board is attached to Northern Powerhouse Ltd, a private company that organises conferences. The 2018 Northern Powerhouse conference, arranged for February 2018, was indefinitely postponed in late 2017 with no reason given.[10] Squire Patton Boggs sponsored the same Northern Powerhouse Conference in 2017.[11]
  • Squire Patton Boggs launched a report in Feb 2017 (to coincide with the above conference) with the think tank IPPR North (Institute for Public Policy Research), looking at the funding and financing issues relating to infrastructure in the Northern Powerhouse region. It calls on the UK government to: use the March 2017 budget to pledge new investment in Northern Powerhouse infrastructure; redraft the Treasury Green Book to better reflect the wider economic benefits of infrastructure projects; provide for greater borrowing by local authorities and Transport for the North and for a Northern Powerhouse Infrastructure Bond; and package up investment opportunities into a northern infrastructure prospectus.[12]
  • SPB Partner Andrew Herring spoke at an event at the Conservative Party conference in October 2016 on the the Northern Powerhouse. He shared a panel with among others Bob Kerslake, chair of the Northern Powerhouse Advisory Board (see above). Herring called for the public sector 'to be able to explore innovative funding mechanisms for investment in infrastructure... through a wider range of financing techniques including asset finance arrangements and pension fund investment'.[13]
  • The firm has its own 'Norther Powerhouse Law' website – northernpowerhouselaw.co.uk – registered in September 2017, which provides 'global insight into practical and legal issues relevant to those who take an interest in and who will be affected by the initiatives that arise as part of the UK Governments Northern Powerhouse proposals'.
  • US infrastructure giant AECOM, which is a US lobbying client of SPB and is involved in major UK infrastructure projects such as HS2 and Crossrail, has also weighed in on debates around the Northern Powerhouse. In 2016, it said that for the Northern Powerhouse to succeed, foreign investment was needed, but that, in order to attract such investment, Northern cities must 'ensure their planning structures are better prepared to attract' such investment. 'Local, regional and planning authorities will need to create the right conditions' it said.[14]
  • Frank Samolis, co-chair of international trade at Squire Patton Boggs (in Washington) has spoken about how the Northern Powerhouse could benefit from UK-US trade talks on the back of Brexit. In early 2017, he said that people in the US needed to become familiar with the programme. 'Northern Powerhouse could organise investment missions to the region and present here in Washington,' he said, adding that think tanks and groups that focus on trade could provide an 'ideal forum' to promote Northern Powerhouse, where a speaker could explain 'what differentiates the Northern Powerhouse from anywhere else in the UK'. He concluded that 'people are starting to realise here [in Washington], and in the UK, that Brexit may not be all that terrible and maybe the UK can become this 'Singapore on steroids', as it has been described.'[15]

Clients

US lobbying clients

Lobbying clients in the US in 2017 include: (see Open Secrets[16] for a full list of clients).
AECOM Global | Amazon | Airbus | Nissan North America | Mars | Coca Cola | UnitedHealth Group | Cerner | Shell | Sanderson Farms (US 3rd largest poultry producer) | Syngenta | Policy & Taxation Group | BAE Systems

EU lobbying clients

Lobbying clients in Brussels in 2017 include: (see Squire Patton Boggs entry on the EU transparency register[17] for EU clients).
KazMunayGas International | Advantage Capital Partners | E-Pure/ The European Renewable Ethanol Association | Children’s Tumor Foundation | Synthos Group (manufacturers of chemical raw materials in Poland).

UK clients

SPB says that it represents in the UK 'a number of household names including those within the retail, hospitality, manufacturing and architecture sectors'.[18]

It is not registered on the government's statutory register of consultant lobbyists.[19]

Contact

Website: www.squirepattonboggs.com; www.brexitlegal.com
London address: 7 Devonshire Square, London, London, EC2M 4YH

Notes

  1. ↑ SPB, Open Secrets website, accessed Nov 2017
  2. ↑ Brexit SPB website, accessed Nov 2017
  3. ↑ Brexit SPB website, accessed Nov 2017
  4. ↑ Berry register of interests, TheyWorkForYou, accessed Nov 2017
  5. ↑ Event listing, AMNT website, 17 June, 2015
  6. ↑ EU Withdrawal, the missing Bill, SPB website, 23 October 2017
  7. ↑ James Wharton, Linkedin profile, accessed Nov 2017
  8. ↑ BCC event, BCC mailout, accessed Nov 2017
  9. ↑ Team, Northern Powerhouse Conference website, accessed December 2017
  10. ↑ Shock announcement as Northern Powerhouse Conference postponed, Manchester Evening News, 3 Dec 2017
  11. ↑ Northern Powerhouse – The Biggest Commercial Conversation in a Generation, SPB's Northern Powerhouse Law website, 11 April 2017
  12. ↑ Paying for our Progress: How will the Northern Powerhouse be Financed and Funded?, SPB website, Feb 2017
  13. ↑ UK Northern Powerhouse essential for entire UK, says leading conservative, Northern Powerhouse Conference website, 10 Oct 2016
  14. ↑ Northern Powerhouse must plan for foreign investment, says global infrastructure expert, AECOM website, accessed Dec 2017
  15. ↑ Northern Powerhouse could help UK become 'Singapore on steroids' says US trade expert, Manchester Evening News, 29 Jan 2017
  16. ↑ SPB, Open Secrets, accessed Nov 2017
  17. ↑ SPB, EU TRansparency register, accessed Nov 2017
  18. ↑ 'Brexit and the Labour Market', written evidence, Parliament website, July 2017
  19. ↑ Registrar site, accessed Nov 2017
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