The Washington Post October 17, 2005 Monday Final Edition Livingston's Sweet Lobbying Setup BYLINE: Jeffrey H. Birnbaum SECTION: Financial; D01 , K STREET CONFIDENTIAL By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum LENGTH: 1115 words On Saturday , Dec. 19, 199 8, Rep. Robert L. Livingston stood in the well of the House ofRepresentatives and rocked the Washi ngton establishment. He was all-but sure to take over as speakerof the House, but instead he said he would resign over reports that he had had extramarital affairs. At the time, he faced a painful reality . "I knew when everything fell apart that I had to opt for a different career ," the Louisiana Republican said. "There wasn't any question: I had to survive." In the years since, he's gone well beyond survival. The Livingston Group LLC, which the 62-year-old lawmaker formed in 1999 with his three top aides, is one of the capital's 10 largest non-law-firm lobbying shops, with annual revenue of $13 million. Livingston and his growing company have had such far-flung clients as the nation of Turkey, the city of New Orleans, Lockheed Martin Corp. and the Girl Scouts. "A lot of members of Congress don't make the transition easily to lobbying, but Bob did. He's very good at it," said Charles R. Black Jr ., chairman of BKSH & Associates, a Livingston Group co mpetitor . "He has a great client list and he does very good work." Livingston has done more than go to riches from ruin, a pattern that by now is familiar along the Potomac. He has also invented a new way of running a lobbying company . Unlike other firms, Livingston has relatively few employees. Most of the people who say they work at Livingston Group are actually consultants who are loosely affiliated with the former congressman. He likes to call this arrangement "the Re/Max of lobbying," referring to the real estate sales compan y made up of independent agents. Livingston also jokes that he has a few workers "in house" and a bunch of others -- the consultants -- in the "outhouse." Livingston came up with this odd, co-op-like configuration after studying the companies that were run by his many lobbyist friends. He knew that he wanted to go out on his own. And the more he talked to established lobbyists, the more he became convinced that a flexible, low-fuss system was what would work for him. The Livingston Group has four partners, 13 employee lobbyists and 43 lobbyist-affiliates, six of whom are overseas. The W ashington-based workers occupy three floors of a bu ilding on the House side ofCapitol Hill. Insiders there say that their numbers will expand as their space does. Space is the key. Livingston charges his consultants what amounts to rent, making them pay essentially what the footage, and the office help, costs him. In exchange, the consultants share their clients -- and their fees -- with Livingston and his partners. "People come to us who are not affiliated with a larger firm and they already have their own business. If they want to affiliate with us on one or two ventures that's fine; we'll provide them with space if they need it, at cost virtually," Livingston said. "They don't need a salary; they don't need benefits; they don't need anything. But when they want to pitch a po tential client with a team of lobbyists, they use
