Civil Justice Reform Group Retains Brownstein for Lobbying Help

A corporate and defense counsel group that advocates for civil justice reform is receiving lobbying help from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

The Washington-based Lawyers for Civil Justice is using Brownstein to advocate for "improvements in the civil justice system to include issues such as: attorney-client privilege, class actions, discovery, evidence, jurisdiction, pleadings, and protective orders," according to lobbying registration paperwork the law firm filed with Congress this week. Brownstein shareholder Alexander Dahl is handling the account.

"Alex's background as a litigator in private practice, a federal prosecutor, and former Deputy Staff Director to the Senate Judiciary [Committee] has ideally prepared him to support LCJ's broad-based programs to reduce the costs and burdens and increase the efficiency of the judicial system," Barry Bauman, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Justice, said in a written statement. "Among the areas in which Alex will be active are discovery, preservation, cost allocation, class action litigation, protective orders, and attorney client privilege in state and federal courts nationwide."

Lawyers for Civil Justice spent $474,000 on federal lobbying in 2011, according to congressional records. The group deployed Bauman and Alfred Cortese Jr. of Cortese PLLC to advocate for it.

But Bauman said he hasn't done any lobbying this year. Cortese also hasn't lobbied for Lawyers for Civil Justice since 2011, congressional records show.