Long gone are the days of old-fashioned gumshoe lobbying. Firms today need to be strategic in accessing policymakers through relationships, media, and digital content. Our team provides leading companies, organizations, and individuals with a multi-faceted effort to impact policy goals, defend against onerous regulations, navigate governmental investigations, or complete a transaction.

We have worked on matters impacting Capitol Hill, executive branch offices, state legislatures, and independent regulatory bodies across numerous industries. Recently, we have prepared leading global investment banks and their executives for hearings before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, educated senior Members of Congress and their staff on Anti Money Laundering (AML) policies and FinCEN reform, led mortgage advocacy efforts on behalf of one of the largest independent mortgage companies in the U.S., and defended one of the largest U.S. student financial services providers against politicized regulatory inquiries.

• Government Investigations and Regulatory Response
• Federal and State Legislative Campaigns
• Coalition Building and Management
• Political Risk Analysis

Armed with real-time and on-the-ground intelligence, Sphere crafts strategic campaigns to reach key decision makers and targeted constituencies in the right manner, and with the right messages in order to improve a client’s reputation and bottom line. We specialize in multi-tier campaigns that utilize the media, grassroots, third parties, and digital assets to ensure that our clients succeed.

Sphere takes an aggressive approach to crisis situations since the most critical step in dealing with these matters happens in the first few hours.  We have frequently dispatched teams around the world, including to Dubai, London, Hong Kong, and Buenos Aires, and implemented 24-hour shifts to man our office around the clock. We believe crisis communications must go well beyond blanket public statements, instead relying on pre-established relationships in order to work the backchannels in real time, as the coverage evolves.

• Brand and Reputation Management
• Strategic Research and Intelligence Gathering
• Digital and Social Media
• Message and Material Development

While the United States is considered a safe and stable place to invest private capital, foreign companies can face barriers to entry that range from an inability to navigate confusing contracting procedures to negative public perception or politically charged environments.

Sphere has a track record of helping clients enter new markets, whether it involves preparing strategic market-entry plans, performing in-depth political risk assessments, or helping to properly brand companies with important constituencies.  Sphere has also assisted clients in securing site locations in the United States by leveraging government incentive packages.  These activities have enhanced our clients’ domestic positions and visibility both commercially and politically.

• Investment Promotion and Sourcing
• Public-Private Partnerships
• Government Representation (FARA)
• CFIUS

Sphere offers Corporate Intelligence designed to manage regulatory risks, enhance reputations, and delineate strategic options within a business or legal setting for law firms, corporations, non-profits and investors. Our research is based on access to global databases of public and online records, plus investigatory capabilities to engage primary sources associated with a firm’s objective. Overseeing the efforts is Edward Wyatt, who worked as a reporter for more than 27 years for The New York Times, Barron’s, Dow Jones and others.

• FOIA filings
  
• Deep public records searches
  
• Regulatory analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Media reviews
• Market impact studies
• Industry intelligence
• Litigation research
• Financial statement examinations