Lobbying the Budget

There are some who are intimidated by the process of lobbying the budget. One theory as to why they’re intimidated is, put simply, that it contains numbers and people are intimidated by numbers. That’s just one theory. However, there are quite a few subtle and not so subtle differences between lobbying

Lobbying the Administration

Our In Practice series continues today with lobbying experts Ray LeBov and Chris Micheli discussing how to lobby the Governor’s administration on policy bills. They speak about important points of contact and mistakes lobbyists make when lobbying the administration.

LeBov emphasizes that if a bill you are lobbying affects a department

Common Mistakes Lobbyists Make

Today’s podcast is a slightly different take on our In Practice series. It’s actually part In Practice as well as part addendum to Ray LeBov’s Rules for Effective Lobbying series.

The podcast today is from a fly on the wall regular perspective of a conversation between contributors – and

How to Find a Lobbying Job

Today’s podcast is about how to find a lobbying job. Generally, my advice to prospective lobbyists is usually similar to job seekers in many other professions, but I’ll try to give some specific advice on getting a lobbying job at the state level in California.

Before you

Using Influence and Navigating the California Legislature

For today’s podcast, I sat down with Fredericka McGee (McGeorge Class of ’91). Fredericka spent an extensive part of her career working in the California Legislature as General Counsel and Deputy Chief of Staff for five Speakers of the Assembly. She is now the

Rules for Effective Lobbying – Part 8 – Don’t Ignore the Minority Party

In today’s podcast, I talk about my eighth rule for being an effective lobbyist: don’t ignore the minority party.  There are a number of reasons supporting this rule, among them: common courtesy, you may need their votes

Knowing When to Stop

In today’s podcast, I talk about my sixth rule for being an effective lobbyist: knowing when to stop. This is closely related to last week’s rule about persistence tempered by patience.

For more advocacy tips from me and from the faculty at McGeorge School of Law, please visit

Perseverance Equals Persistence Plus Patience

In today’s podcast, I talk about my fifth rule for being an effective lobbyist; understanding that perseverance equals persistence plus patience. While perseverance is correctly cited as being key to a lobbyist’s success, it is also critical to an advocate’s success to not engage in the fallacy of