Since its founding in 2001, Patricia Lynch Associates has quickly become one of the state capital’s top lobbying firms, billing more than $5 million dollars in fees for clients in 2006. Much of that has to do with Lynch herself, who spent 30 years in various government positions—including eight working with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan)—before an advance notice of the date for her son’s bar mitzvah convinced her that she needed to leave the life of a staffer behind to prepare for the impending college tuition bills. Lynch has remained one of Albany’s top power players, with a firm that has now added a New York City office and several new members, including former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp.
Recently, Lynchreflected on her fast rise in the world of lobbying, how the business has changed, her take on the current rush to restrict lobbying and where she goes to sort out strategies for the toughest clients who come looking for her help.
What follows is an edited tran scri pt.

The Capitol: Many people attribute your very fast rise to become one of Albany’s top lobbyists to the relationship with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, from your years of working for him. Is that the reason?
Patricia Lynch: He is a mentor of mine. And one of the things that I have been very fortunate in my almost 30 years of government and political life is that I’ve been blessed with several mentors, men and women who really have taught me a great deal about the practice of government and the practice of politics, and how they intermix.

TC: How do you approach lobbying?
PL: The practice itself is evolving, becoming more sophisticated, more demanding. There’s a new generation. It’s not what lobbying was 15 years ago, 20 years ago in this state’s capital, nor any state’s capital—maybe with a few exceptions. And not in Washington, either. It really is a maturing industry, and you have to be more savvy to be more successful. ... I’m a broker in some situations and a translator in others. Government, corporate America, developers, non-profits—each individual business segment has its own culture, its own time frame, and its own process which achieves results. You need to be able to understand each one and have them work together and coincide together so it’s a win-win for both. So one needs to know when to go in to help secure a budget item. One needs to know when to go in when the final decision is made. One needs to understand the client’s needs.
So, we, the team here combine the inside knowledge, the grassroots perspective, the ability to take media, whether it’s free or paid, and make that work for the client, and the additional ability to see what sort of representation to choose—the local, state and federal government—trying to put that in a basket and help the client on any given day. So it’s a little bit more technical, but people, technical sophisticated yet grassroots political, it’s sort of a mix. It’s not, and no disrespect to the generations that preceded me, but it really isn’t the days where it’s just somebody out for a golf game or you had a card game with them. Nothing wrong with that but that era is done. The times demand different approaches and the clients deserve modern approaches, and we are very results oriented and results driven.
TC: There has been a lot of focus on lobbyists in local and national politics lately. Do you think some of the restrictions and proposed restrictions go too far?
PL: In many cases, just the sunshine itself makes it impossible to cheat if those wanted to cheat. And that happens in every industry. So I will say that as the industry itself matures and becomes more sophisticated they will embrace, and I think they have embraced on many different areas and levels, the disclosure element. I think, however, those that use the term lobbyists as the boogeyman, or the target to explain why government is not functioning, I think that that’s a missed opportunity. Because a lobbyist, like a lawyer, like an advocate, also brings to the system information and experiences which benefit the development of good policy and good politics. And I feel comfortable in the world where good policy and good politics move hand and hand together. Otherwise those in government become too isolated and they have no experiences to draw upon.

TC: Are there ways in which you think some of the restrictions have not gone far enough?
PL:  I don’t look at the world that way. Just tell me what the rules are and we will live and live by the rules. Just make the rules clear, and fair and known. And I think that as long as it is fair and equitable, I don’t see why people should have issues.

TC: Lobbying is more of an art than a science it seems. What do you do to make them feel like you are being an effective force?
PL: I’m actually in the room developing strategy with the client. And then we implement the strategy the clients agree to. When one is looking at how to achieve a result, not a process, how to achieve the result, one needs to make sure it’s structured as a win-win for people inside and people outside. We are doing the strategy before we even hit the hill. We are not, and no disrespect, but we are not appointment secretaries. We don’t sit and literally go with the client, make an appointment and that’s the beginning and the end of the value we provide. Like a lawyer whose preparing for a trial, who’s involved with every aspect of the case as it goes through the trial prep, that is how we approach our business. Now perhaps we’re different from other lobbying firms in that respect, I don’t know. But what we start off with is, the client, the needs, short-term, long-term goals, dreams, and how you develop an effective, seamless strategy. That’s what we get paid to do.

TC: How do the personal appeals you make to lawmakers fit into the picture of what you do?
PL: We have an innate understanding of the process. So what we bring to the client is an understanding of when to go in, how to go in, how to shape the argument, that is what we are paid to do. Again I keep referring, I keep going back to like a law firm, but that is what they are paid to do by their clients. So to go to, not to court but to here, do you just go to the legislature, do you go to the agencies, do you go to the AG’s, do you go to the executive, do you go get a county legislature to put together a resolution first?  That is what we’re known for, our ability to look at any situation, any problem, any crisis, any need, and how to strategize to get the best end result, for the client.

TC: Are there times when clients come to you and you find yourself with no idea how to help them?
PL:  There are times when a client will come to me or come to me late in the process and say “You know Pat this is what I need you to do,” and there’ll be times when I’ll sit on my deck with a cup of coffee and anguish for 48 hours on how the hell I’m going to get it done. And once I make a decision on how we should proceed, you’ve got to stay with the strategy.
It’s like a campaign: you stay with the strategy, until another door opens. So there are times when I’ll struggle, you know, argue with myself, over the strategy, but after that 48-hour period, and after I run it by my partners to make sure I haven’t lost all of my brain cells, we proceed on that strategy. And obviously, it is not a global approach. Every client, every issue, every year, every session has its own tune, has its own nature, has its own culture. The way you do something the year before, you’re not going to strategize the same client for different needs this year because the people are different, the nuances, the alliances are totally different, who’s on top, who’s on the bottom, who’s in the middle, who’s going here, who’s going there—that’s what you get paid to do. To adapt and modify the strategy given the year that you’re now in front of, and they’re all different. I have been up here since I was 19 years old—there has not been one session that mirrors another.

TC: Do those moments of anguish happen much any more?
PL:  It still happens, just nobody sees them. They happen.