This section is a Q&A slot featuring interviews
with members of Congress and sometimes with senior aides, selected
lobbyists and policy experts. The Hill will ask the questions,
but we welcome your input; to help us shape the discussion please
send your comment.
Latest Message
The Hill : This week, Bryan Cave Strategies President Broderick Johnson talked with The Hill's Erica Wisniewski for a HillTube edition of the Tuesday Profile.
The Hill : See a partial transcript of the interview below.
The Hill : In what industries are some of your clients involved? What are some of the issues you’re working on with your clients?
Broderick Johnson : We work on a range of issues, we have automotive clients, we have clients that are involved in housing issues.
Broderick Johnson : One of the clients that I really enjoy working with the most, and that is a non-profit organization that came to us over a year ago, I had just gotten here, and said we would like to figure out a strategy for getting the African American community more involved with issues around global warming and climate change. Could you help us develop the relationships with African American organizations that could be, or are involved in that, but also in figuring out strategies that raise the awareness?
Broderick Johnson : One of the concerns that we have is that children, especially, hear about global warming, and climate change, and polar bears are going to be extinct, and it’s kind of very scary for them. And we need to make sure they understand what it's about and what they can do.
The Hill : How is working as a lobbyist different from your experience working on Capitol Hill and at the White House?
Broderick Johnson : Of the 25 years I’ve been in Washington, working in the government or related to government, the vast majority of those years it was on the Hill as, or in private practice as counsel, essentially as a lawyer for Congress or a lawyer in private practice.
Broderick Johnson : It was only when I went to the Clinton administration that I became a lobbyist, which would have been seven or eight years ago.
The Hill : How was the experience of working the White House?
Broderick Johnson : I was one of President Clinton’s chief lobbyists, I had the pleasure of working in the White House every day, flying on Air Force One with the President all around the world, briefing the President, standing in the Oval Office trying to get the words out, ‘Well, Mr. President, this is what you’re going to be doing this afternoon,’ and that sort of thing. You got used to it after a while but the experiences were unreal.
