by Rita Frankenberry
for Virginia Business December 2004
John-Garrett Kemper listened
intently as delegates in the Virginia General
Assembly debated in 1984 whether to raise
the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. The
13-year-old was spellbound. From that moment,
he knew politics would always be a part of
his life.
As a
page for the House of Delegates, he spent
the winters of his teenage
years at the state capitol. By 1988, Kemper
became the assistant to the clerk of the
House, a post he held during his junior and
senior years in high school. “I didn’t
know anything else but going up to Richmond
for the winter,” says Kemper, a Norfolk
native. “I got to sit on the floor
of the House for a lot of the debates, so
I got a good feel, at the age of 13, for
how things worked. I just always thought
it was great and always loved politics, and
was trying to find a way to get back.”
Nine
years later, Kemper did exactly that. After
graduating from Hampden-Sydney
College in 1993 and law school at the College
of William and Mary in 1996, he joined his
mother’s business, Kemper Consulting,
in 1998 as vice president and counsel. Kay
Kemper had started the family business two
years earlier. Today, with offices in Richmond
and Norfolk, it’s one of the largest
lobbying firms in Virginia.
In addition
to Fortune 500 clients — including Fluor Corp., Ford Motor
Co., 3M, and Liberty Property Trust — it also has a good mix of local
clients, including governmental agencies and trade groups such as the Retail
Alliance of Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Maritime Association.
Helping
these clients and representing them before state agencies and
the assembly is the most appealing part of
Kemper’s job. “Every day it’s
a different issue,” he says. “Whether
it’s building a road or trying to help
the city get money for the cruise terminal,
it’s a real neat practice. It’s
satisfying because you can see the impact
that you have when these projects eventually
get built. And it’s nice to be able
to say you contributed in some small part
to making those things happen.”
On the
flip side, Kemper and the firm’s eight other lobbyists protect
the interests of their clients when the General Assembly or local governments
consider legislation that could have an effect on their clients’ business.
Legislators
say Kemper’s
knowledge of the law makes him effective.
Del. Clarke Hogan, a Republican representing
the Virginia’s Southside, notes that
Kemper has written a fair amount of legislation
for the firm’s clients. “I think
a lot of people see him as one of the top
younger lobbyists up there,” says Hogan. “He
reads the law pretty carefully and that’s
relatively unique. A lot of lobbying gets
done with a white sheet — a bullet-point
list — and John-Garrett will do that,
but he’ll also take time to really
understand the legislation like a lawyer.
John-Garrett is one person you can go to
and say, ‘Look, what does this really
mean and what are the ramifications of it?’”
Kemper’s knowledge of
legislative issues means he’s rarely
seen at hearings before legislative study
committees. In fact, Hogan says he cannot
remember the last time Kemper has appeared
before a legislative committee. “People
who are up a lot [before the committee] are
the people who haven’t done their homework,” explains
Hogan. “You’re probably facing
a losing fight if you have to get up to talk
about it.”
It’s no accident that Kemper is well informed. He uses the 10 months
of the year when the General Assembly is not in session to research the angles
of proposed legislation. During the 2004 session, more than 3,000 bills were
introduced. That volume means delegates don’t have time to verify all
aspects of proposed legislation.
That’s where a well-informed
lobbyist lawyer comes in. “They have
to know that you are credible and telling
them both sides of the issue,” Kemper
says. “That is the most important thing
you need to do, because the moment you lose
credibility with any of those 140 members
over there, you’ve got problems.”
