Rhoads Group to become part of Cassidy and Associates

Cassidy and Associates and the Rhoads Group will join forces at the beginning of next year as one government-relations firm. 

Cassidy and Associates will integrate the Rhoads Group into its operations as the government-relations and public-affairs firm looks to boost its revenue in policy areas such as defense, medical technology and transportation. 

The Rhoads Group, named after its president, Barry Rhoads, is a boutique lobby shop that started as a sister company of Cassidy and Associates. Both firms are now part of the larger consortium Interpublic Group. 

The Rhoads Group has been located at the same Washington address as Cassidy and Associates since its inception in 2001. While the two firms shared administrative expenses and resources, they had previously kept their client rosters and revenues separate. 

Rhoads will join Cassidy and Associates as president. Gerald Cassidy, the founder of the government-relations consortium, will continue in his role as executive chairman. The integrated group will keep the name Cassidy and Associates. 

“For several years the two firms have worked very closely on behalf of clients, shared the same operational resources and even the same building,” Cassidy said in a statement. “The integration of the two firms is a natural progression that expands, enhances and strengthens the capabilities we have to offer our clients.

Joining forces would strengthen both Rhoads’s and Cassidy’s teams of lobbyists to deal with a new environment in which congressional Republicans are looking to ban earmarks and reduce domestic spending.

By managing and “deploying” all the common assets between the firms as one, Cassidy will be “well-positioned” to serve their clients, Rhoads said in an interview on Monday.

The energetic Rhoads will bring with him a team of well-connected lobbyists, including James Lofton, Sen. Thad Cochran’s former legislative director; L. Carter Cornick III, a former chief of staff to retired Sen. John Warner (R-Va.); and Gary Krump, a retired chief judge of the Veterans Affairs Board of Contract Appeals and vice chairman of the Procurement Executives Council. 

The merger of the two firms comes on the heels of a disappointing third quarter for Cassidy. The firm posted $4.6 million in lobbying revenues in the third quarter, a decrease of 24 percent from the same period in 2009, when the shop took in $5.7 million.

The Rhoads Group, meanwhile, has seen its fortunes rise, and enjoyed some notable successes in the fight to keep military bases off the 2005 base closure and realignment list. Perhaps the highest-profile win for Rhoads was keeping Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota off the chopping block. 

In the last five years, Rhoads became the go-to person for lobbying on military construction, infrastructure and housing projects. His firm also specialized in helping nonprofit organizations receive funding for defense health projects through partnerships with military services. 

The Rhoads Group also represents the North American arm of the European defense and aerospace giant, EADS.