Sandler Reiff has been recognized as a 2019 Goldies All-Star. The Goldie Awards recognize excellence in political practice and communication. The award is selected by peers based on individual execution and effectiveness.
“The Goldies Awards is pleased to announce that the Law Offices of Sandler Reiff has been inducted into its 2019 All-Star Class,” said Jason Mazza, Goldies Awards Program Manager. “The Goldies Awards is judged by professional peers and the Law Offices of Sandler Reiff was selected in recognition of their 2018 work, which was among top-of-class in the industry. We congratulate the Law Offices of Sandler Reiff for having an all-star year.”
On Thursday April 11th, the Justice Department indicted Gregory Craig, who served as White House counsel under President Obama, on charges related to work he performed for the Ukrainian government in 2012. The Department of Justice alleges Craig made “false and misleading statements” to avoid registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“Sometimes it really is the fact that the cover-up is worse than the crime,” said Joshua Rosenstein, a lawyer at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock who advises clients on complying with FARA. “It’s unclear that any of this would have happened if Mr. Craig was forthright with the government to begin with.”
Many firms “are no longer quite as willing to take risks or operate in gray areas,” Rosenstein added.
You can read Partner Josh Rosenstein’s comments on the indictment in the following articles:
Due in part to the Mueller investigation, there have been 5 criminal prosecutions under FARA brought in the last 18 months – almost as many as there have been in the last 40 years. And it seems the Justice Department will only continue with its FARA crackdown.
The New York Times reported last week that John Demers, the head of the DOJ’s national security division, said at a recent conference that the department was moving “from treating FARA as an administrative obligation and regulatory obligation to one that is increasingly an enforcement priority.”
Josh Rosenstein, a partner at Sandler Reiff, commented:
“The Attorney General’s announcement confirms what FARA lawyers have been counseling for some time: that FARA would remain a priority long after the Special Counsel is finished with his work, and that DOJ means business. This should serve as a very serious warning to those who flout FARA’s requirements that the department is going to be far more aggressive than it’s been in recent memory.”
Jeff Wice, Counsel to Sandler Reiff, has authored an article for the American Bar Association on the upcoming census count in 2020. In the article, he explores topics and questions such as, why does the census matter and what does the census traditionally encompass.
You can read the article in the American Bar Association for Social Education.
In their latest article “Campaigns Count on Political Lawyers to Get The Vote Right,” the ABA Journal profiles Sandler Reiff attorney, Dara Lindenbaum, and her work for the Stacey Abrams campaign.
I am the crazy person who went to law school to do exactly this,” says election law specialist Dara Lindenbaum, senior counsel at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock in Washington, D.C.
Lindenbaum, who most recently served as general counsel for Stacey Abrams’ Georgia gubernatorial campaign, is part of a small bar of political lawyers who act as the first line of defense (or offense) in the critical days leading up to election night and in the immediate aftermath.
The article also profiles fellow Sandler Reiff attorney, Jack Young, and his longstanding work in the election law field.
Rolling Stone explores how the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) has been revived in recent years as part of the government’s larger effort to expose foreign influence on American politics.
Joshua Rosenstein, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who represents clients registered under FARA, tells Rolling Stone that the DOJ’s more aggressive stance on FARA has led to a greater awareness by people working in and around the foreign influence industry.
“The two new changes we have seen are a large number of new clients all of a sudden asking for advice, and realizing they may need to get lawyers who understand this law,” Rosenstein says.
As a result of the U.S. Department of Justice ramping up enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP’s became one of the agency’s first milestone targets. The law firm’s $4.6 million disgorgement deal with the DOJ marks a new era of enforcement for the political and legal sectors. The firm failed to register its lobbying and public relations work for the Ukrainian government in connection with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and then misled DOJ investigators about it, according to the agency. As part of the deal, Skadden will also have to retroactively register as a foreign agent.
“Law firms don’t want to be the cautionary tale, and Skadden is the cautionary tale here,” said Joshua Rosenstein of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock PC, another D.C. attorney with FARA expertise. “I think ever since the initial Manafort and [Manafort associate Rick Gates] indictments, most of us who practice this area of law were waiting for the next shoe to drop and wondering where it was going to be.
Robert Mueller is reviving the Foreign Agents Registration Act, bringing nearly a half dozen indictments utilizing the law in cases related to Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.
Josh Rosenstein, a lawyer with expertise in FARA compliance, said the Justice Department typically has followed its formal policy of encouraging voluntary compliance over prosecution. The rare instances in which violations led to prosecution, Rosenstein said, have been high-profile cases involving unfriendly regimes.
“FARA has been dangled as both a carrot and a stick as part of a negotiation for a plea,” Rosenstein said.
Just days into the new Congress, K Street is seeing an influx of recently departed lawmakers and aides announcing new lobbying gigs. Recently departed members and staff bring with them fresh connections on Capitol Hill, but they also face restrictions on what they can do in the private sector.
Lawmakers and their aides are subject to a one-year ban on aiding or advising foreign governments or foreign political parties with the intent to influence the U.S. government, said Joshua Rosenstein, a partner with Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, who specializes in lobbying and ethics laws.
Though recently departed lawmakers and their aides have long sought ways to get around the restrictions, Rosenstein said such matters are getting more attention with recent criminal convictions of people who engaged in unregistered lobbying, such as former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as House Democrats’ pending political overhaul (HR 1) that includes campaign finance, lobbying and ethics matters.
“This may be a different environment than what we had even a year ago,” Rosenstein said. “Public scrutiny is on the rise in terms of advocacy on behalf of foreign clients. And in my view, K Street in general has been treading more carefully in recent months.