OLYMPIA – As congressional leaders, Jennifer Dunn and Dick Gephardt were on opposite sides of the political aisle, but since leaving office in January, they’ve linked up with a blue chip law firm that is opening a branch in Seattle.
There is life after partisan politics, they said in a joint interview Thursday.
Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, was the top-ranking House Democrat for years and ran for president several times. Dunn, a Washington Republican, was an influential Ways and Means Committee member, homeland security vice chairwoman, and for a time the Republicans’ top female member of the leadership team. She was touted for the U.S. Senate last year, but retired from Congress.
The former political adversaries ended up with lucrative posts with the same Washington, D.C., law firm, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. The firm, which merged with the Seattle firm Gray Cary and London-based DLA, is now the second-largest in the world.
The firm also includes other former top members of Congress, including former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., is a former firm member.
The Seattle branch already represents venture capital startup companies, Starbucks, REI, the University of Washington bioengineering department, and Prepared Response, a company that is helping map schools and other public buildings.
Gephardt and Dunn, both senior policy advisers to the governmental affairs practice, will headline a seminar at the Columbia Tower Club in Seattle on Oct. 11 to introduce the firm and present information on obtaining government contracts, including hurricane restoration; tax changes; international trade; homeland security; and how to deal with federal agencies, the appropriations process and lawmakers.
The theme of the conference is “Doing Business with the Federal Government.”
Ethics law forbid the pair from lobbying their old colleagues for a year, but they can deal with federal agencies and the administration on their clients’ behalf.
“A lot of what our firm does is unrelated to direct lobbying of members,” Gephardt said. “When you are solving tough problems for your client, you realize that affecting something through the political process may be only one little part of the solution.”
Although she has strong credentials to work with the Republican White House and GOP-controlled Congress, Dunn agreed that a bipartisan or even nonpartisan approach often works well.
“You can take the partisanship out of it and use your creative energy to solve problems,” said Dunn.
Gephardt, who would have been speaker of the House if Democrats had regained a majority before he left, said he loved being in Congress for 28 years, but that leaving for the private sector was the right move.
“It has been a real good change,” he said.
Both former congressmen use Washington, D.C., as their main base of operation, but travel widely. Dunn, who has a town house in Kirkland, spends about a week a month in Seattle, and Gephardt works there on occasion.
Dunn’s son, Reagan Dunn, won a Republican primary this week and is expected to retain the King County Council seat he has held by appointment.
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