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Lobbying
/ Regulatory
Ralph L. "Bill" Axselle Jr.
Williams Mullen
by Holly M. Rodriguez
Ralph L. "Bill" Axselle Jr. |
When
Bill Axselle retired from the General Assembly 12 years
ago, he thought he was through with the public world.
After all, he had served as a representative for Henrico
County for 16 years and had worked doing general practice
at the same law firm, Axselle, Hundley, Johnson &
Harris, for 28 years. The last thing on his mind when
he called it quits was lobbying in Virginia’s General
Assembly. “I’d had a good career in the legislature,
retired and just wanted to practice law,” he says.
“It was nothing I saw or envisioned — it just
happened.”
A
local law firm jumped at the chance to take advantage
of Axselle’s legislative contacts. Williams Mullen,
a prominent Richmond law firm with a strong reputation
for lobbying, brought the law-making veteran on board.
It even created a special position for him — chair
of the Government Group. Axselle’s knowledge and
expertise offered premium leverage to begin a lobbying
and regulatory practice to represent the business interests
of clients at the General Assembly. Axselle says he
was up to the challenge, even though it meant leaving
his only employer, a firm he’d spent his entire
career building. “I had wonderful law partners,
and we had good success,” he says. “But obviously,
when you have a firm of 230-plus attorneys [at Williams
Mullen], you can provide services that you can’t
provide at a firm the size of eight [like Axselle, Hundley,
Johnson & Harris] — that was the main thing.”
Since
that time, Axselle has built an impressive Rolodex.
His client roster includes HCA Healthcare Corp., Motorola
Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Virginia Society of Certified
Public Accountants. He says most of his lobbying efforts
have worked out favorably for his clients, because he
has always exercised a key factor in lobbying success:
flexibility. “You have to keep in mind that the
process often involves achieving your goal by being
flexible about your end goal,” he said. “There
were instances where we had undertaken a certain approach,
but had to compromise to get what we wanted. At the
same time you can’t forget the client’s key
interests.”
Compromising
means understanding all sides of an issue. And August
Wallmeyer, also a lobbyist, says Axselle is good at
it. He’s a good listener who lets all sides of
an issue have an opportunity to express their views.
“He will talk to different parties and listen to
what each person or group thinks about a situation and
understand their perspectives,” he says. “He’ll
couple that with the ability to find commonalties, and
[decipher] the very essence of the issue.”
Axselle’s practice involves dealing with three
areas of government — the legislative branch, the
executive branch and regulatory agencies such as the
State Corporation Commission. His power of persuasion
is usually effective, but his biggest accomplishment
was when he aced a major hurdle two years ago. In the
2000 session of the Virginia General Assembly, the state’s
regulatory accounting arm and Axselle’s client,
The Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants,
wanted to be moved to its own regulatory department.
The legislature said yes, and the group argued that
by having its own department the board would be more
focused and effective in regulatory oversight of the
industry.
But
then Gov. Jim Gilmore did not agree, and vetoed the
bill. Axselle prevailed anyway, and the General Assembly
sided with Axselle’s client and overrode the governor’s
veto. That is a very rare occurrence in Virginia, he
says.
Senate
Majority Leader Walter A. Stosch has worked with Axselle
for nearly 20 years, and says his competence and ethics
are a hallmark. “The most important thing for me,
as a legislator, in a lobbyist is for them to explain
their side and the opponent’s view, and Bill is
very capable of doing that,” he says. “Bill
stands out as someone who we know does his homework
and is always ethical.”
For
the past three years, Axselle has been doing his homework
on the most labor-intensive lobby issue of his career
— deregulation of Virginia’s utilities. His
team of lobbyists and attorneys were instrumental in
capping electricity rates for Virginians. The cap started
in January 2000 and will last through July 1, 2007.
But that was just the first step. “We need to take
steps to bring competition into Virginia,” he said.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a truly competitive
environment where people can get lower costs, a benefit
of competition.”
Return
to Virginia Business - December 2002
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