Archer & Greiner's lobbying unit has brought back a familiar face, but also expanded into new territory.

The law firm's government and external relations affiliate Archer Public Affairs of Trenton was rejoined by Richard S. Mroz, the immediate past president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

Archer Public Affairs also recently opened a new location in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and added government affairs specialist Eric Bugaile.

The new location will be the headquarters for the Pennsylvania practice of the Haddonfield-based firm's lobbying arm.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Bugaile previously served as executive director of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Transportation Committee and is still currently chairman of the Capital Area Transit Authority. The firm said he brings a western and central Pennsylvania perspective, while John Taylor, director of the Pennsylvania practice of Archer Public Affairs, brings a Philadelphia and southeastern point of view.

Taylor, a Republican who retired from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last year after 17 terms, is also of counsel to the Archer law firm.

While he was an elected official, it was tricky for Archer Public Affairs to expand its lobbying capabilities into Harrisburg due to conflicts, Taylor said. After his retirement, the firm started to get a lot of inquiries, he said. “Now we're ready to roll,” Taylor said.

Competing with firms that are headquartered in Pennsylvania may be a challenge, he acknowledged, but he also expects to work together with some of those firms. Taylor also expects to add to the market, he said, as some of Archer Public Affairs' prospective clients have not sought out government relations services before.

“We're actively in discussions with prospective clients as well as people we would need [to serve those clients],” he said. “I would expect one year from now, we'll be quite larger.”

To the BPU and Back

Richard Mroz of Archer Public Affairs

Mroz rejoined Archer Public Affairs as senior director for strategic and regulatory affairs, according to a June 19 announcement. The move marks a return for the Villanova University School of Law graduate, whose expertise in energy markets and technologies, cybersecurity, water and wastewater policy, and infrastructure development and financing, are expected to help grow the firm's client base, it said.

Before becoming president of the NJBPU, Mroz worked in private practice as a lawyer and lobbyist—as managing director of Archer Public Affairs and of counsel to the Archer law firm.

Last July, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry tapped Mroz to become a member of the U.S. Department of Energy Electric Advisory Committee, which advises the department on programs and priorities on issues of the evolving grid, distributed energy resources, and reliability of the electric system.

For many years, Mroz managed his own consulting business in Trenton, focusing on regulatory and governmental relations, regulatory affairs, business development and issues management with clients in energy, utility, transportation, financial services, real estate, health care and human services, among other fields.

The two most recent Republican gubernatorial administrations in Trenton appointed Mroz to several high-ranking positions.

In 2012, then-Gov. Chris Christie tapped Mroz to be a commissioner of the Delaware River & Bay Authority, a congressionally chartered bistate transportation agency. The DRBA operates bridges, airports and ferries between New Jersey and Delaware, including the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

Two years later, in September 2014, Christie made him president of the NJBPU, a post he held from October 2014 until January 2018. As president of the NJBPU, Mroz was also its chairman and chief administrative officer, and functioned as the chief energy officer for New Jersey. Mroz remained as a commissioner at the agency until April 2018.

In 1993, then-Gov. Christine Todd Whitman appointed him to the first of several senior positions in her administration. He served as director of authorities and governor's counsel for, and liaison to, the state's largest independent agencies. Whitman then appointed Mroz as special counsel to lead a series of special projects, and then designated him chief counsel in 1999. He served as Whitman's primary advisor for legislative affairs, judicial and prosecutorial appointments, as well as legal, policy and management issues of the state government.

Mroz is former chairman of the Critical Infrastructure Committee for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which was established on a temporary basis after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

From 2016 to 2017, Mroz was president of the Organization of PJM States Inc., the official organization designated to interact with the regional grid and transmission organization. He was a member of the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council from 2016 to 2018.

Mroz has been co-counsel and legislative agent to the New Jersey Conference of Mayors and served as Camden County counsel from 1991-1993.

In Archer's press release, the firm stated that “Mroz will provide strategic business and regulatory affairs advice to clients, with a focus on the energy and utility industries.” He will work with clients nationally, according to Archer.

Harrisburg Bound

Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Photo: Shutterstock

Archer is among the group of firms based in Philadelphia and New Jersey that have continued to grow their government-related and lobbying capabilities in Pennsylvania's capital.

Central Pennsylvania has seen a few law firms close in recent years. Harrisburg-based midsize firm Rhoads & Sinon saw its end in January 2018, and Lancaster-based Hartman Underhill & Brubaker shut its doors in 2015.

Harrisburg-based McNees Wallace & Nurick and Lancaster-based Barley Snyder are the largest players actually headquartered in the market, and both have grown in recent years.

But other firms with headquarters further east have also been bulking up their presence in the middle part of the state, often bringing on lawyers with deep government or institutional knowledge and experience.

Philadelphia-based midsize firm Post & Schell also added to its Harrisburg presence this year, bringing on principal Tawny Mummah in its health care practice group in March. She came off 20 years in Pennsylvania's Office of General Counsel, most recently as chief counsel for the state's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

Dilworth Paxson brought on partner Victoria Reider in March as well, to split time between the firm's Philadelphia and Harrisburg offices. Before joining Dilworth, she was the the executive deputy secretary and chief operating officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Banking.

Pepper Hamilton announced, also in March, that it would be adding partner Amy Foerster in Harrisburg to co-chair the firm's higher education practice group. She had been the general counsel at Bucknell University before that.

Cozen O'Connor brought on public finance attorney Scott Mehok in January, as a member in its corporate practice, hiring him away from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. Mehok had recently helped establish the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank, which helps municipalities fund infrastructure projects.

David Zambito, co-chair of the utility, environmental and energy group at Cozen O'Connor, said Harrisburg is a good fit for his firm's strategy of seeking out middle-market work. He said regulatory, public finance, energy and utilities, and labor and employment work are all strong areas of practice in central Pennsylvania. And those practices are strengthened by the firm's lobbying presence in the capital, he said.

“Once you bring in those clients, those clients tend to turn to you for other Pennsylvania work because you're a full-service firm,” he said. He also noted that the firm has offices throughout the state, and needs that connection to the capital to best serve clients handling business locally.

“Cozen being headquartered in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, we've always viewed it as important to have a strong Harrisburg presence,” Zambito said. “It really makes for some nice synergies to be east-to-west, west-to-east in Pennsylvania, with Harrisburg in the middle.”