Lobbying World

By The Hill Staff - 03/22/11 07:47 PM ET

• Dena Battle has joined Capitol Counsel as a principal. She comes to the firm from the National Association of Manufacturers and has also lobbied for the National Federation of Independent Business, where she headed up the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition. In the past, Battle has been a legislative director for Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

• Jonathan Pyatt has been named by the University of Illinois as its new director of federal relations. He was deputy chief of staff to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). Pyatt has also worked on voters’ rights programs with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and served as a criminal prosecutor for the city attorney in San Diego.

• Beverly A. Pheto has joined  Polsinelli Shughart as a senior policy adviser to the firm’s public policy group. She was the staff director for the House Appropriations Committee. Before that, Pheto was the Democratic staff director for the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee from 2003 to 2008 and, from 2001 to 2003, the Democratic staff director for the House Appropriations Transportation subcommittee.

• Former Rep. Jim Barcia (D-Mich.) will be heading up a new federal practice joint venture between the Livingston Group and Karoub  Associates. Barcia was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 and served five terms. He has also been a state legislator in Michigan, serving in its House of Representatives from 1977 through 1982 and twice in the state’s Senate, from 1983 through 1992 and 2003 through 2011.

• Lucia Lebens has joined the  Bockorny Group. She comes to the firm from mCapitol Management, another lobby shop. She was deputy chief of staff to former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and first started working for him in 1999 when he was mayor of St. Paul, Minn.

• Scott Gluck has joined Venable as of counsel to the firm’s legislative affairs group and will work out of the firm’s Washington and Los Angeles offices. He comes from the National Republican Congressional Committee, where he was director of special initiatives during the 2010 election cycle. Before that, Gluck was vice president and counsel at Markstone Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity fund.