Partner Kristine Blackwood, who joined Squire Patton Boggs in June after serving as deputy director for congressional oversight and investigations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will depart with the group as well.
“We have an incredibly talented, bipartisan public policy team in place that is integrated into our global firm,” former Sens. John Breaux and Trent Lott, Squire Patton Boggs’ lobbying co-chairs, said in the statement, which they updated to include Blackwood’s departure Monday. “We wish Kevin, Eugenia and Kristine well on their new endeavor as our firm continues to advance in a new and positive direction.”
Squire Patton Boggs has struggled to retain legacy Patton Boggs lobbyists in Washington since the Cleveland-founded Squire Sanders merged with the declining lobbying powerhouse and since the death of name partner Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. All but three of 13 Patton Boggs legacy board members stayed at the firm after the merger.
Squire Patton has managed to hold on to Breaux and Lott’s influential lobbying group, however. And more recently, the firm worked to add policy clout from Capitol Hill, including former Reps. Jack Kingston and Jim Matheson, and David Schnittger, John Boehner’s longest-serving staffer. Blackwood and David Hoppe, who joined the firm in April only to leave to become House Speaker Paul Ryan‘s chief of staff last month, were part of that rebuilding.
Prior to the merger, O’Neill was deputy chairman of the public-policy department. This year, he lobbied for 22 Squire Patton Boggs clients, including a handful of colleges and universities, the Safe Campus Coalition and McGraw-Hill Education, according to public filings. Pierson worked for several of the same clients as O’Neill.
Blackwood registered as a lobbyist alongside Pierson and others for five clients, all related to the health care industry. Those five clients spent $245,000 total with Squire Patton Boggs in the third quarter of this year, making them a potential million-dollar book of business if their contracts with the firm had extended for a full year.
It was unclear when the trio of lobbyists would leave the firm. As of Monday morning, they were still listed as professionals on Squire Patton Boggs’ website.
O’Neill did not respond to a request for comment over the holiday weekend. Arnold & Porter chairman Thomas Milch on Monday said O’Neill, Pierson and Blackwood bring “substantive experience” in health care and financial services.
“Their recognized track record in advancing clients’ interests on Capitol Hill deepens and broadens our legislative practice,” Milch said in a statement. “We greatly value their in-depth experience working on a wide range of legislative issues with associations, municipal governments, healthcare systems, universities and transportation agencies.”
This story was updated with additional information about the departures. It was further updated to include a statement from Arnold & Porter.
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