New York City’s Top 50 Lobbyists
The firms that earned the most lobbying your government in 2019.
Which NYC lobbying firms have the most pull in City Hall? Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock
Every year, the New York City Clerk’s Office publishes a list of the city’s top 10 lobbyists, based on total lobbying compensation for the previous calendar year. Kasirer has topped the list in the last few cycles, followed by Capalino+Company and then such mainstays as Bolton-St. Johns, Constantinople & Vallone, and Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno.
But City & State was curious to learn more about the other players who hadn’t cracked the top 10. After all, many of these firms still earn impressive sums representing influential clients. So this year, we crunched the numbers and came up with an improved and expanded list: New York City’s Top 50 Lobbyists.
Like the city’s official top 10, our list is based solely on what the city defines as lobbying revenue – and it excludes income firms may take in for other services, including communications and campaign consulting. But unlike the city’s rundown, we took a different approach in opting to combine compensation totals for companies that are part of the same corporate structure, even if they file separately – which vaulted Cozen O’Connor (along with Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies) into our top 10.
We then reached out to each firm for some basic details as well as responses to one or more questions. The responses have been edited for length and clarity. For any firms that didn’t answer us, we filled in the gaps with details from public filings.
We’re pleased to present New York City’s Top 50 Lobbyists.
With reporting by Jana Cholakovska, Amina Frassl, Jon Lentz and Alice Popovici
Thank you to our sponsors
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1. Kasirer
Suri Kasirer, Julie Greenberg, Kara Hughes & Omar Toro-Vaca, President; Executive Vice President; Senior Vice President, Corporate and Legislation; Senior Vice President, Real Estate
Compensation: $14,322,411.60
Other key employees: Lester Marks, Jovia Radix, Jennifer Rivera
Key industries: Nonprofits, real estate, urban planning, land use, hospitality, media and entertainment, technology, health care, hospitals
Notable clients: Altice, Charter Communications, Delta Airlines, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Motion Picture Association, Mount Sinai Health System, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, NBCUniversal, Nordstrom, Northwell Health, Target, T-Mobile
_0.jpg "Julie Greenberg")
What has been your firm’s biggest achievement in the past year?
We are always proud to represent and advocate for a diverse portfolio of New Yorkers, and we accomplished great things on their behalf in 2019. We negotiated over $49 million in funding for our nonprofits – from American Cancer Society, Big Brothers Big Sisters, UJA and Citymeals on Wheels, to Ballet Hispánico, Lincoln Center and The Public Theater. We led the government affairs team for Nordstrom’s East Coast flagship store, which opened in October 2019. It was an incredibly complex project and a $1 billion investment by Nordstrom in this single store that occupies the base of three buildings. We also worked with Target to open stores in Kips Bay and on the Upper East Side, which makes nine stores altogether since we began representing them. On behalf of Tishman, we navigated through a 74-711 Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and successfully obtained approvals from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Department of City Planning, and the City Council for replacing a ten-story parking garage with a contextual condo building on East 16th Street.
Looking back, while there were challenges in 2019, we never could have imagined those we would be faced with now. That said, the biggest challenge we faced last year was that of working to help clients navigate the complex dynamics at play as a result of the upcoming city government sea change. While still early in the political season, every elected official term-limited out of office at the end of 2021 had their sights set on their next move. To have every project and every piece of legislation viewed and considered through that lens - and the politics of navigating how getting one official’s support would impact the positions taken by their likely opponents for another office, made operating in a highly politicized environment even 
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)? COVID-19 has changed all of our lives and has certainly changed the political landscape. It has given elected officials the opportunity to define their leadership style in the face of the unknown, and has forced us all to reimagine how we engage for now and for the foreseeable future. For our clients, we’ve had to be nimble and pivot – adjusting the way we engage with government, how they communicate with elected and government officials about the critical needs they’re filling for the city’s neediest residents, and revise and reframe the strategies we recommend to our clients. Being nimble and resourceful is key to our success and to the city’s future.
2. Capalino+Company
Jim Capalino, Travis Terry & Mark Thompson, CEO; CFO; Group Leader
Key industries: Social services, real estate, health care, technology, consumer products, finance
Notable clients: UPS, Macy’s, Fair Futures, Accenture, BYD Motors, HNTB, Nike, Somos Community Care
What has been your firm’s biggest achievement in the past year?
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, our city is experiencing one of its toughest tests in its history. While Capalino+Company’s focus is always on serving our clients, our firm also has a responsibility to use its skills as advocates and our relationships to support government in taking action in this crisis. We have worked with our business and nonprofit partners to secure personal protective equipment for frontline workers, open testing sites, enable remote learning and deliver meals to homebound seniors.
Our company has evolved a lot in the last year into an urban strategy firm. We’ve grown our non-lobbying services to help clients with strategic planning, investment financing and market research. We have made great strides in developing and executing forward-thinking strategies to help our clients get things done. The challenges from the coronavirus pandemic are significant, and balancing our work with our core values of helping communities is always front and center.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
Tragedies always have a way of bringing out the best in us. Prior to COVID-19, our politics were antagonist, angry and uncompromising. That will change for at least in the short term to become less polarizing as there is now an increased expectation and reliance on government to guide us through this crisis. We all have to work together to find solutions to revitalize New York.
3. Bolton-St. Johns
Emily Giske, Mike Keogh & Juanita Scarlett, Partners
Other key employees: Samara Daly, Teresa Gonzalez, Anne Marie Anzalone, Robin Brown, Julie Jursik, Julian Kline, Violet Moss, John Albert, Keyla Antigua
Key industries: Health care, education, transportation, technology, city finance, nonprofit service, land use advocacy
Notable clients: Tech:NYC, LGBT Network, United Way, Hudson Companies, Girls for Gender Equity
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We are proud to have developed the most diverse firm in the city of New York, and continue to attract uniquely qualified talent who are recognized as public policy and government affairs leaders across the state. Our team is also a leading advocate for women, the LGBTQ community and immigrant communities across the city, and we ensure that the people generally left out of political conversations get a voice, leading to more inclusive results. We are also proud to have secured millions of dollars for nonprofits providing critical services in areas like criminal justice, immigration, education and social services. More notably, we were able to help our clients restore $6 million in funding for the NYC School Breakfast Program and secure funding for indigent legal services.
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The biggest challenge has been to continue to meet a variety of public policy initiatives for a group of diverse clients in a changing political climate. We continue to leverage our relationships to help government achieve the best policy outcomes by identifying critical objectives and working to reach those objectives in a collaborative way that also preserves and promotes widespread social and economic opportunity across New York City.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event that is going to present ongoing challenges. If anything, the crisis made starkly clear just how important government is in getting us through major public health events. During the initial outbreak, our firm assisted clients in responding to the crisis on the front lines. We are proud to have been able to leverage our community relationships and professional networks to get supplies and resources where they were needed, and are especially proud of our work with clients like the United States Tennis Association, whose National Tennis Center is the site of a field hospital meeting the immediate medical needs of Queens residents.
4. Constantinople & Vallone Consulting
Anthony Constantinople & Perry Vallone, Principals
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Other key employees: Peter Vallone Sr., Tony Constantinople, Jake Potent, Steve Williams, Jordan Press, Lauren George, Kevin Jones, Scott Karolidis, Yanni Trittas, Julianna Mirra, Carol Swift, Andrea Reres, Bailey McGillian
Key industries: Education, nonprofits, small business, energy, renewables, telecommunications, technology, affordable housing, real estate, transportation
Notable clients: Waste Management, T-Mobile, TD Bank, Walgreens, The College Board, NRG Energy, New York Edge, YAI
Advocacy has become more inclusive: It requires working with community groups, faith leaders, parents and teachers. We build partnerships to grow our outreach to engage and persuade a wide group of constituents. Through this enhanced dialogue, our clients have achieved success that benefits communities like the construction and preservation of thousands of new affordable housing units and funding that helps make STEM education more accessible and interactive.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
There’s no question that the political landscape in New York City has shifted dramatically in the past few years, presenting government relations firms with the need to build broader coalitions, engage activated community stakeholders and organizations, and present clients with comprehensive strategies that highlight local community needs. It’s a challenge we are uniquely positioned to tackle, because those concerns have been incorporated in our work since the firm was founded. We have always said that consensus building guides us on the path to success, a strategy that our founding partner Peter Vallone used effectively as speaker of the City Council.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented all of our clients with new challenges. Many are now dependent on guidance from an array of agencies that can change from week to week, requiring our team to process and disseminate information at a much greater pace. At the same time, we are working with our clients to help government address the challenges created by the coronavirus, including increasing internet access for students so they can learn remotely and helping small businesses apply for loans. Building these partnerships has become a core function of our firm and has led to some of our most rewarding work when it comes to Speaker Vallone’s guiding principle of “do the right thing."
5. Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno
Vincent Pitta & Jon Del Giorno, Founding Members
Other key employees: Robert Bishop, Carlos Beato, Theresa Cosgrove, Vito Pitta, Nadya Stevens, Bradford Gonzalez-Sussman, Ardian Tagani, Karen Mullaney, Mickey Cekovic
Key industries: Health care, construction, housing, immigration, transportation, civil service, police, family support services, private and public sector labor organizations
Notable clients: Public Health Solutions, EmblemHealth, MagnaCare, Richmond University Medical Center, AECOM, Detectives Endowment Association, New York City Coalition of Operating Engineers, TWU Local 100, Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, Public Employees Federation, Plumbers Local 1, IBEW Local 3, ATU Local 1181,Correction Captains’ Association, Teamsters Locals 237, 282 and 831, AHRC, Adapt Community Network, Center for Family Representation, The Consortium for Worker Education, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
We were able to secure funding for construction of a new, modern emergency room, surgical tower and cogeneration plant for Richmond University Medical Center. We successfully secured funding for women’s locker rooms and bathrooms in the city Department of Sanitation garages. We assisted the Consortium for Worker Education in coordinating their first ever gathering of their more than 60 partners in an open house showcasing their broad breadth of services and celebrating their successes.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
Our biggest challenges have been to ensure consistent funding for the critical services provided by our social service and health care clients; foster and ensure the rigorous enforcement of health and safety standards to protect the men and women working in the NYC transit system, construction industries, schools, NYCHA and other agency facilities; and to provide our public and private clients with the strategic and logistical tools and support they need to realize their organizational goals and missions in an ever changing environment.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
Our clients in the health care, transit, education, construction, sanitation, police and building engineering services have been on the front lines of this pandemic. Our current challenge is to ensure they have access to the equipment and supplies they need. To assist our clients, we are providing them daily with multiple COVID-19 related alerts containing information of critical importance to their organizations, as well as obtaining and distributing to them personal protective equipment and related products as they continue to provide services to others, while risking their own lives and limbs. In terms of our work, we expect we’ll be using a great deal more of the telecommuting and video conferencing skills we’ve developed in the past several weeks.
6. Davidoff Hutcher & Citron
Sean Crowley & Arthur Goldstein, Partner; Partner and Chairman of the New York City Government Relations Practice Group
Other key employees: Sid Davidoff, Jeffrey Citron, Howard Weiss, Keith Wright, Charles Capetanakis, Steve Malito, Brian Simon
Key industries: Real estate, land use, construction, New York City budget, legislation and regulation, economic development, hospitality, health care, social services
Notable clients: Election Systems & Software, Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association, Junior Achievement of New York, JustLeadershipUSA, Juul Labs, NBCUniversal, NYC & Company, SCO Family of Services, Success Academy Charter Schools, Shake Shack New York, Willets Point Asphalt Corp.
Davidoff Hutcher & Citron has been focused on helping guide our clients through the uncertainties of the COVID-19 outbreak, providing counsel and advocating for policies to support their invaluable work across key economic sectors and in our community.
We immediately formed a task force of attorneys and government relations professionals to advise clients on applying for emergency relief loans and grants through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Small Business Administration, leveraging the skills of our diverse, multifaceted team, which has decades of high-level experience and expertise at City Hall, in Albany and in Washington, D.C.
With federal, state and local authorities enacting legislation and issuing guidance nearly every day, we have been in constant communication with our clients, clarifying what the new rules mean and how their companies and organizations are impacted.
Now more than ever, businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits need a trusted partner to help them navigate the landscape. DHC’s entire government relations and legal team has been proud to provide the highest level of support in this time of need.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
COVID-19 presents an enormous challenge, with major sectors of the economy frozen and nonprofit organizations fighting to continue their important work.
We have been working tirelessly to help them overcome these obstacles, whether through successful advocacy to keep essential businesses open with safety precautions or to protect funding for organizations that provide crucial services for children, foster families, persons with disabilities, the homeless, and the formerly incarcerated.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
We are all dealing with the same issue: how to emerge even stronger from the COVID-19 outbreak. And we know the coming weeks and months will present serious difficulties.
But we are the same New York that stood tall after 9/11 and the financial crisis. We believe that we must – and we will – work together to rebuild and recover.
DHC’s government relations and legal team has worked closely with elected officials and agency leaders through six decades, advocating on behalf of clients including Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, cultural organizations, schools, municipalities, public authorities, labor unions and nonprofits.
These institutions are vital to New York, providing jobs and critical social services. Advocating on their behalf – revealing the human faces behind their work – defines DHC’s mission.
7. Greenberg Traurig
Ed Wallace & John Mascialino, Founder of GLP Practice and Co-Chairman, New York office; Chairman of Government, Law and Policy
Other key employees: Bob Harding, Mark Weprin, Larry Levy, Jonathan Bing, Bryan Grimaldi, Julia Rogawski, Roy Mogilanski, India Sneed, Ellen Gustafson, Jay Segal, Deirdre Carson, Nick Hockens, Daniel Egers
Key industries: Franchises and concessions, land use, real estate, technology, hospitality, not for profit, transportation, entertainment, contracts
Notable clients: Deloitte, JCDecaux, Morgan Stanley, AT&T, NYU Langone, The Broadway League
GT has expanded its New York Government, Law and Policy (GLP) Practice with a number of professionals who have added further depth of services and unique experience, including: Jonathan Bing, former state assemblyman; Bryan Grimaldi, former COO and general counsel of NYC & Company; Roy Mogilanski, former assistant director at the city Office of Management and Budget and former executive director of FISA and the Office of Payroll Administration; India Sneed, former chief of staff to the 41st District New York City council member and former assistant district attorney for Kings County; and Ellen Gustafson, former director of operations for former New York City Councilman Daniel Garodnick.
Our team works closely with the full-service GLP teams in the firm’s Albany and Washington, D.C. offices providing comprehensive solutions for all of our clients’ needs. These capabilities are more relevant for today’s challenging environment as we help clients address the COVID-19 health crisis and help them navigate issues and opportunities once the crisis has subsided.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
The COVID-19 situation has been a challenge and a learning experience for everyone, but also, this crisis has been a validation that the choices we have made as a firm provided us the tools to serve our clients with the same speed and effectiveness despite working remotely. Clients affected by the crisis, whether it be government contracts or the need for government approvals, have been serviced seamlessly, and that is a testament to our entire team of professionals.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
Elected officials are put to the test. Some will rise to the challenge, others not.
As for our work, which often depends on person-to-person advocacy and the sidebar exchange of information, we are adapting to video conferencing, and even greater transparency and sharing. We are finding it works well!
The GLP team convenes at 8 a.m. daily with a set agenda of client-focused topics. The group is helping clients deal with their new unique challenges and has a Health Emergency Preparedness Task Force: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) where members are closely monitoring actions anticipated or being taken by federal, state and local government to update clients in real time. The pandemic has had an enormous impact on the budget but we believe we have built a team with all levels of real government experience that no other law or lobbying firm in the city has, which we are confident provides effective counsel to and advocacy for clients especially in these tough times.
8. Cozen O’Connor and Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies
Katie Schwab & Stuart Shorenstein, Practice Director, New York Public Strategies; Chairman, New York Public Strategies and Co-Founder, Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies
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Other key employees: Ken Fisher, Rose Christ, James Ansorge, Jenny Fernandez, Zakariah Malik, Evan Preminger, Vivian Krieger, Alyssa Huminski
Key industries: Banking and financial services, education, food and beverage, labor and employment, nonprofit, real estate, retail
Notable clients: The New York City BID Association, New York University, Chubb, The Whitney Museum, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pratt Institute, Apollo Theater, Two Trees Management, American Apparel and Footwear Association
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Our biggest achievement has been obtaining more than $40 million in public funds for our nonprofit clients in New York City alone. Another was working with Cozen O’Connor’s top litigators for our long-term Public Strategies client Manhattan Neighborhood Network to lay out the public policy arguments which helped win a 2019 landmark decision on the First Amendment state actor doctrine in the U.S. Supreme Court.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
In the context of term limits, navigating the minefield of several thousand bills proposed in the New York state Legislature and City Council, many of which would directly impact businesses, nonprofit organizations and property owners for better or for worse. Assessing the impacts and foreseeing unanticipated consequences has required persistence and substantial coalition building.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
Being part of a national firm (Cozen O’Connor) enables us to have the technology and resources to effectively work remotely. However, the inability to have formal or casual in-person encounters with decision-makers and staff requires tailored advocacy, since officials are also dealing with the emergency, including their own isolation and, in some cases, health.
For many public and elected officials, this is their first major crisis in their current positions. They are faced with massive revenue shortfalls, unprecedented health and privacy issues, hamstrung operations and limited channels of communication. In addition to service cutbacks, they need to confront inequities in areas such as remote learning and employment opportunity, without compromising public health and safety. At the same time, they need to develop a forward-looking recovery strategy for a transformed New York, all against a backdrop of elections in 2021 that are already underway.
Our role as advocates is to help those in government think through the implications of these issues and to help align the interests of our clients with the public interest.
Our clients have been at the forefront of addressing the COVID-19 crisis: providing essential services, moving quickly to reorient all operations to a remote environment, and creatively developing solutions needed to ensure the future well-being of the city and state. As we continue to monitor, distill and interpret the massive amounts of sometimes conflicting information presented daily by the federal, state and local governments, we appreciate our clients’ ingenuity, dedication and partnership more than ever.
9. Geto & de Milly
Michele de Milly & Ethan Geto, Principals
Other key employees: Daniel White, Mark Benoit, Maya Kremen, Laura Sinagra Dolan, Cristiana Peña, Christopher Johnson
Key industries: Economic development, real estate and land use, professional sports, parks and open space, K-12 and higher education, hotels and hospitality, nonprofits dealing with affordable housing, mental health, children's health and social services, LGBTQ+ advocacy, criminal justice reform and post-prison reentry, culture and the arts
Notable clients: Property Markets Group, New York City Football Club, Restoration Hardware, Zeckendorf Development, Playwrights Horizons, The Howard Hughes Corporation, New Alternatives for Children, Trinity School, Brooklyn Book Festival, PepsiCo
This was a very productive year for Geto & de Milly. We advanced economic development and complex rezoning projects in New York City that are creating jobs, affordable housing and public open space, and have worked to ensure major multifamily property owners are able to maintain and preserve vital housing stock for working families and low-income residents. We're proud of policy and budget wins on behalf of our nonprofit and advocacy clients, particularly criminal justice reform efforts including reentry education, workforce development and the expansion of successful Cure Violence initiatives.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year? Some may see the coming term limit-driven turnover of the most of the city’s elected officials as a challenge, but we see this as a very exciting time electorally. We have great relationships with city, state and federal officials and are focused on ensuring our clients are alerted to the status of the competitive races that will transform city government – its people, its issues and its politics. Another challenge we’ve taken on is guiding clients in how to take advantage of new technologies and methods of data analysis that can enhance their community outreach and messaging, helping them better understand their audiences, track issues and effectively communicate their stories to achieve their goals.
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
New York City and state are always moving forward, even in a crisis. We have been advising clients on how to maximize the impact of their philanthropic efforts for local communities during the pandemic, as well as connecting these business and nonprofit executives with government and civic leaders to advance a post-COVID-19 economic recovery. For our firm this includes positioning residential and commercial development projects as priorities to rapidly move forward, create jobs and get the economy moving again. The crisis has generated creative thinking, for example, strategizing on how the city can move many vital land use processes online. The public health wisdom society is acquiring is already shaping innovation in urban planning, architecture and public policy, and we're working with clients to ensure they are incorporating these learnings into their projects. Also, importantly, in response to how hard communities of color have been hit during this crisis, it will be critical that the public, private and nonprofit sectors collaborate to ensure a stronger safety net and greater equity going forward.
10. CMW Strategies
Michael Woloz, President and CEO
Other key employees: Jeff Rodus, Skip Piscitelli, Danna DeBlasio, Kathy Cudahy, Matthew Walsh, Sofiya Minsariya
Key industries: Banking, transportation, energy, real estate, retail, nonprofits, culturals
Notable clients: Bird, Instacart, American Museum of Natural History, MoMA, National Supermarket Association, Hotel Association of New York, Central Park Conservancy, Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, Home Depot
What has been your firm’s biggest achievement in the past year?
First, we changed our name from Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz to CMW Strategies, so we’re excited about that! We opened an Albany Office and hired one of the most seasoned Albany veterans in Skip Piscitelli. We continued to grow our client base in the tech, nonprofit and real estate sectors. One of our biggest achievements was the state legalization of e-scooters on behalf of our client, Bird. We worked closely with a great lobbying team to persuade lawmakers that alternatives like e-scooters will play an important role in the future of mobility in New York.
What has been your firm’s biggest challenge in the past year?
Our biggest challenge has been keeping up with a surge in legislation in the city and the state that impacts our clients which represent so many different industries and sectors. The balance of utilizing community engagement and coalition building, straight-up lobbying, media and legal analysis is a delicate dance that is complex and requires a lot of strategy. The more bills, the more time we spend on strategizing – but we like that part the best!
How has the coronavirus pandemic changed New York’s political landscape (and your work)?
Face-to-face interaction is so important to advocacy, lobbying and legislating. That’s become very difficult and has imposed challenges on the way we communicate. This is a social business and performing a social business remotely has its challenges. That said, we have become adept at working remotely, which I think will have some lasting impacts long after the pandemic subsides.
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