The National Law Journal Quotes Hunter Bates on “All-Hands-on-Deck” Work for Coronavirus Relief Package

The National Law Journal has quoted G. Hunter Bates, co-head of Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice, in the article “‘Unprecedented Need for Information’: Inside the Lobbying Frenzy Over the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Package,” which recounts some of the behind-the-scenes work that went into the relief package that was passed by Congress and signed into law last week.

The article reports that members of Akin Gump’s public policy team held regular stimulus update calls that included discussions on how the legislation might affect different industries as well as individual clients. Bates said, “We have never been busier in the policy group than we’ve been over the last two weeks. And while everyone is working from their laptop and their iPhone, the day starts when the sun comes up, and you don’t stop with phone calls and emails until you go to bed at night.”

Bates continued by noting that it has been “an all-hands-on-deck moment for the law firm in a way that I think has never really existed before in the policy space. This really cuts across every sector of our economy, and as a result, it’s involving virtually all of our practice groups.”

Regarding the unprecedented nature of the lobbying work for the relief package, Bates observed, “You’ve got everybody in Washington chasing rumors and draft summaries and draft legislation in a way I’ve never seen before. Trying to tell between what’s rumor and what’s real has been a full-time job for people in our space.”