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Giuliani firm lobbied for wide-range of clients
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Giuliani's contribution
The firm expected a boost from Giuliani's presence, and it got one.
It took in roughly $500,000 more from its lobbying business the first year of Giuliani's partnership than it had the previous year, rising from nearly $5.8 million between mid-2004 and mid-2005 to $6.3 million between mid-2005 and mid-2006, a Political MoneyLine analysis found.
The firm's managing partner, Patrick Oxford, declined to discuss details of Giuliani's compensation. It is typical for a partner in a law and lobbying firm to get a share of the firm's proceeds.
"Mayor Giuliani's worldwide reputation for leadership has contributed to the firm's stature and success," Oxford said. "Of course, should he be inaugurated as president, the firm's name will change."
Possible appearances of conflict
Giuliani's corporate work sets him apart from his leading Democratic rival - New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - and the past three presidents, who moved from one political post to another.
It's not unusual for Cabinet secretaries to come from industry, such as the executive for the Kellogg cereal company - Carlos Gutierrez - who became Commerce secretary. Typically, appointees acknowledge the need to avoid even an appearance of a conflict of interest by promising to sell company stock and avoiding issues directly involving their former employer. Presidents typically deal with stock issues by having their investments placed in a blind trust.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, became a national hero after the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, earning accolades and the cover as Time magazine's "Person of the Year." That high profile gave him a marquee name and the potential to earn millions after leaving office in January 2002, and he has.
A publishing contract alone made Giuliani a wealthy man; he left the mayor's job with a $3 million book deal with Talk Miramax Books. He can command six figures for a speech, and took in $11.4 million from speeches last year alone.
Ex-mayor's multiple business enterprises
Even greater riches have likely come from Giuliani's business dealings. Giuliani will have to put a number on his recent earnings in a personal financial disclosure report due Tuesday.
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Giuliani's partnership with Bracewell & Giuliani is just one of several of the former mayor's enterprises. The firm was known as Bracewell & Patterson before Giuliani came aboard in spring 2005.
Others, past and present, include Giuliani Partners, a consulting firm; Giuliani Capital Advisors, an investment banking firm formed through the acquisition of an Ernst & Young division; Giuliani & Kerik, an arm of Giuliani Partners focused on security; and a security firm, Giuliani Security & Safety LLC.
Soon after leaving the mayor's office, Giuliani agreed to chair the board of advisors of Leeds Weld Equity Partners IV, a private equity fund whose principals at the time included former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
Giuliani's campaign has said he is still considering how and when to separate himself from his business interests. Earlier this year, Giuliani Capital was sold to Australia-based Macquarie Group for an undisclosed sum.
Contribution connections
Giuliani's vast network of business associates provides a ready-made base of potential campaign fundraisers, donors and grass-roots, get-out-the-vote volunteers. At least some have already followed him to his presidential campaign: Oxford is the campaign's national chairman and plays a lead role in fundraising.
Through March, the most recent figures available, Giuliani raised at least $300,000 for his campaign and political action committee from employees and partners of his firms and the lobbying clients identified by AP. Of that, nearly half came from partners and employees of Bracewell, Giuliani Partners and Giuliani Capital.
In addition to its lobbying clients, Bracewell & Giuliani represents businesses in legal and financial matters. Many are household names, such as AOL Time Warner; Apple Computer; Bank of America; General Electric; Southwest Airlines; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.; and the San Antonio Spurs.
It also is working for Saudi Arabia. In March, the firm filed papers in a Texas court case on behalf of Saudi Arabia's oil ministry - taking sides with another international energy giant, CITGO, which is controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a rival of the Bush administration. One month after the 2001 terrorist attacks, then-Mayor Giuliani famously rejected a $10 million check from a Saudi prince to help terrorism victims. Giuliani spokeswoman Comella declined to comment on the firm's Saudi connection.
Other Bracewell & Giuliani legal clients include ChevronTexaco; government nuclear lab contractor Bechtel; BMB Munai, which develops oil wells in Kazakhstan; the Norway-based Statoil oil and gas conglomerate; the Luby's restaurant chain; online retailer Overstock.com; some of the bank lenders in the Adelphia Communications bankruptcy case; El Pollo Loco chicken restaurants; and even a country club - River Oaks in Houston - that is owed money by a bankrupt company.
Bracewell & Giuliani lawyers represented Joseph Nichols, a Texas killer ultimately executed for the 1980 murder of a 64-year-old Houston convenience store clerk. Nichols was executed in March after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his final appeal based on the claim that he was being put to death for a murder his robbery partner had admitted to committing. Giuliani is a staunch supporter of capital punishment.
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