More K Street legal drama

By Caitlin Oprysko

With Daniel Lippman  

MORE K STREET LEGAL DRAMA: McAllister & Quinn, the D.C. lobbying shop that specializes in grant consulting services, has sued six of its former employees, alleging breach of contract and violations of trade secrets statutes after the staffers resigned en masse to work at another lobbying firm, bringing former clients with them.

— The suit was filed in February, days before an announcement that the lobbyists — Jessica Venable, Scott Tominovich, Chris Fish, Joo Young Lee, Casey Newell and Jake Parduhn — would all join Thorn Run Partners . According to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the group submitted their resignations within an hour of each other, along with termination notices for more than two dozen clients that were following them to Thorn Run. The termination notices carried dates of as early as Nov. 1, despite office policy requiring such notices be disclosed immediately upon receipt, according to the complaint.

— Venable, Tominovich, Fish, Lee, Newell and Parduhn late last month asked a judge to dismiss the suit and have disputed McAllister & Quinn’s classification of certain internal information like grant methodologies as proprietary information, calling the firm’s use of the term “a post hoc categorization that materialized after Defendants resigned.” At the same time, the defendants pointed out the firm did not offer evidence its former employees had actually shared or used company trade secrets or confidential information, though the firm alleged that they had “upon information and belief … impermissibly used” confidential information.

— McAllister & Quinn shot back in a filing earlier this week, opposing the motion to dismiss, claiming the defendants’ “arguments grossly oversimplify the extent and type of sensitive information” that the firm “protects as trade secrets,” while contending the allegations it laid out were “more than enough to survive a motion to dismiss.”

— According to the February complaint, after “the coordinated departure of nearly one-tenth” of the firm’s staff, McAllister & Quinn performed an internal investigation, it found that “in the weeks leading up to Defendants’ departures, Defendants accessed and downloaded thousands of pages of M&Q’s confidential and trade secret information,” which the firm said included templates, samples and guides for grant proposals, full project folders for various clients, client pipeline information, a firm new client welcome package and handbook, onboarding documents for new clients and firm analyses of legislation like the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

— McAllister & Quinn alleges the downloads were “all in breach of confidentiality obligations in Defendants’ employment agreements,” though attorneys for the defendants claimed in court documents that the information in question had been accessed throughout the usual course of their jobs and that the former employees had worked to return or destroy documents they still had in their possession. The audit also found several defendants had forwarded “confidential information and trade secrets” to their personal email addresses prior to leaving.

— The firm also accused several of the former employees for violating non-compete provisions in their employment agreements with McAllister & Quinn, which bar staffers from working with former clients of the firm for two years with the exception of a client the employee “solely originate[s] based on your work, experience, or personal relationships.”

— Attorneys for the group of defendants declined to comment on the suit. A lawyer for McAllister & Quinn did not respond to a request for comment.

Happy Friday and welcome to PI. The Hill may be quiet this week and next, but that doesn’t mean you should be. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

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TELECOM ALLIES GO IN FOR THE KILL ON FCC NOM: POLITICO’s John Hendel has an interesting readout today about how midterm politics and industry opposition “are endangering a key Biden nominee who would give Democrats a majority at the Federal Communications Commission — jeopardizing the administration’s push to restore net neutrality and other tech regulations rolled back in the Trump era.”

— “A coalition of Republicans, moderate Democrats and telecom industry allies are ratcheting up pressure on potential swing Democrats to oppose FCC nominee Gigi Sohn , including by calling the progressive consumer advocate an ‘anti-police radical’ and accusing her of being biased against rural America. Sohn’s supporters say these broad swipes, rooted in politically sensitive culture wars, bear little attachment to her actual record.”

— The opposition to Sohn’s confirmation includes the nonprofit advocacy group headed by former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), which “just launched a $200,000 social media advertising campaign against Sohn. This group, the One Country Project, has accused Sohn of dismissing rural America, pointing to comments in which the nominee accused policymakers of ‘disproportionately’ steering broadband dollars to those communities and giving urban dwellers the short shrift — an attack coming as Biden this week launches a ‘rural infrastructure tour,’ including a focus on broadband.”

SMALL BUSINESSES FIGHT FOR SENATE SUPPORT OF RELIEF PACKAGE: “Restaurants, gyms, assisted living facilities and other businesses devastated by the pandemic are mounting a final push for federal relief,” The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom reports. “Advocates scored a momentous win last week when the House passed a bill to provide $55 billion in aid to restaurants and other hard-hit industries.”

— “They now face the challenge of garnering 60 votes in the Senate after several Republicans signaled their opposition to additional COVID-19 relief for businesses. Industry groups and small business coalitions are ramping up lobbying efforts as Congress nears campaign season, aware that they’re running out of time to secure pandemic relief in an election year.”

— “Senate leaders are debating whether to take up a companion to the House-passed bill, which would provide $42 billion for restaurants and $13 billion for other hard-hit small businesses, or a measure from Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that would send $40 billion to restaurants and set aside funds specifically for gyms, live venues and other businesses.”

— “The Economic Bridge Coalition, a collection of small business groups representing live event operators, amusement parks, travel advisers, equipment rental stores and other businesses hammered by the pandemic, is backing the House-passed bill, stating in a recent letter to lawmakers that unlike previous legislation it ‘doesn’t pick winners and losers by industry.’”

— But other industries, like assisted living providers, “have expressed frustration that they are excluded from both of the leading proposals to boost hard-hit industries, despite suffering a wave of closures and over $30 billion in losses during the pandemic.”

BUCK GETS 30 YEARS: “Democratic donor Ed Buck , who in 2021 was convicted by a federal jury of nine felonies, including giving methamphetamine to two men who died at his West Hollywood apartment after being injected with the drug, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison,” CNN’s Steve Almasy and Elizabeth Joseph report.

— Buck was sentenced to 360 months, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California. “Buck was found guilty in 2021 of two counts of distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death, four counts of distribution of methamphetamine, one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises and two counts of enticement to travel in interstate commerce for prostitution.”

GRIFFIN TO BUSINESS LEADERS: DON’T STAY OUT OF POLITICS: “Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin is raising his total investment in this year’s midterm congressional elections to roughly $40 million and calling on American business leaders to become more involved in politics,” per to the Wall Street Journal’s John McCormick .

— “Day to day, the Citadel founder is either the first- or second-biggest individual donor to outside spending groups on the Republican side for federal races this election cycle, according to rankings by the nonpartisan OpenSecrets watchdog group, making him a top force behind the GOP’s drive to retake Congress in November."

— “Mr. Griffin gave $18.25 million to five groups promoting conservative candidates, aides to Mr. Griffin told The Wall Street Journal, ahead of the Friday deadline for committees to file first-quarter disclosure reports to the Federal Election Commission. His single biggest gift was $7.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super political-action committee associated with House Republicans.”

— “In an interview in his corporate headquarters overlooking Lake Michigan and Chicago’s skyline, Mr. Griffin said more U.S. business leaders need to become involved in politics, even if it risks alienating customers, employees or shareholders at a time of deep division.”

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— The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations has added Kristin Baldwin and Emily Marsh as directors of state government affairs. Baldwin comes to NAPEO from the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and Marsh comes to NAPEO from the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention.

— Entergy has hired John Hudson III as senior vice president for federal policy, regulatory and government affairs. He was previously president and chief executive officer of Nicor Gas Corporation.

— Julie Hrdlicka has joined the National Safety Council as government affairs manager. She was previously with Elevate Government Affairs. Noreen Keeney, previously with FEMA, has also joined as director of communications, and Erin McDermott has joined as senior communications manager.

— Ethan Dursteler is now a portfolio manager at Stand Together. He was most recently the director of government affairs at Malouf Companies and is an NFL government affairs team and Rob Bishop alum.

— Daniel Zotos is leaving the Zero Emission Transportation Association and joining FreeWire Technologies as director of communications. Brian Willis, communications director for Pioneer Public Affairs , will become ZETA’s new communications director.

— SY Lee has been promoted to be chief of staff and head of communications at Rebellion Defense. He most recently was head of communications at the company and is an Obama DHS alum.

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