Ileana Ros-Lehtinen joins Akin Gump, one of the largest lobbying firms in Washington, with clients around the world. Ros-Lehtinen joins the firm as an “adviser” because she can not lobby in Congress officially for at least a year after leaving her position as a federal representative.
“One of the things that attracted me to Akin Gump is its broad base of established clients in Latin America,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “I hope to work with many of the firm’s clients in the region, countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and throughout Central America, to help them address their public policy goals and challenges.”
Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, was the first woman to preside over the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives and the first person of Cuban and South Florida origin to reach Congress. Her extensive knowledge of foreign relations and contacts throughout the world will be of great help to her clients.
But Ros-Lehtinen’s decision, which will likely come with a salary increase compared to the annual $ 174,000 she earned as a representative, is also seen as the most recent example of lawmakers and assistants leaving official jobs to become lobbyists.
Ros-Lehtinen’s announcement also comes on the same day that former Republican representative Carlos Curbelo announced that he is joining a group of Columbia University studies focused on energy issues and climate change. Curbelo worked closely with the group on its proposal to tax carbon emissions, which expired at the end of the last Congress after Curbelo lost reelection.
Ros-Lehtinen will give lectures at Georgetown University and also teach a class at the University of
