Lobbying 101 for Business Leaders

As Chief Government Affairs Officer for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association Christopher focuses on taxation, budget, economic development and workforce development. NJBIA is the largest and most impactful business association in the nation.

Prior to his current job, Emigholz worked in state government for a decade. He was the Budget Director for the State Senate Republican Office for 8 years overseeing economic, fiscal and education policy, and he also directed education policy and legislative affairs in the New Jersey Department of Education prior to that. This is his second stint at NJBIA having served for years as their workforce development and education lobbyist earlier in his career. He was also a teacher through the Teach For America program in a high school in Atlanta, Georgia, and a community liaison/volunteer coordinator for an elementary school in Baltimore City through the AmeriCorps-VISTA program.

Emigholz has a Master of Public Policy degree from Rutgers’ Bloustein School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Robbinsville, NJ with his wife and 3 children, where he is active in the community including coaching youth sports and serving on the school board to which he was elected.

Rebecca Moll Freed is a partner in the firm’s Government Contracts and Procurement Policy practice. She is also a member of the Nonprofit, Power, and Public Policy and Law practice areas.

Rebecca’s practice is truly at the intersection of law, government, and business. Through her varied practice, Rebecca focuses on helping companies successfully navigate through a myriad of complex regulatory frameworks pertaining to political contributions, pay-to-play rules, government contracting, ethics rules, lobbying requirements, and energy and utility matters. Rebecca also works extensively with trade associations, charitable organizations, social welfare organizations, issue advocacy groups, political action committees, independent expenditure only committees (Super PACs) and coalitions on governance, lobbying and political activity compliance matters. Rebecca always takes a “hands-on” approach to working with clients and views herself as an extension of the client’s team.

Rebecca counsels companies on government contracting and the procurement process. She provides training and counseling to companies, in-house counsel, and corporate ethics and compliance officers seeking to maximize government contracting opportunities while assuring their compliance with the law. Rebecca provides clients with substantive counsel on pay-to-play laws and has extensive experience in assisting clients in successfully preparing and completing RFPs and RFQs for federal, bi-state, state, and local government entities. Rebecca also has experience with vendor codes of ethics, prequalification questionnaires, background qualification questionnaires, diversity in government contracting, set-asides for minority and women-owned businesses (MWBEs), Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), and public-private partnerships (P3s).

Rebecca is also a member of the firm’s Government Ethics and Election Law team. She has helped clients develop enterprise-wide multi-jurisdictional compliance programs for political engagement, lobbying compliance, and gifts and entertainment. Rebecca has frequently developed these programs for clients who are government contractors with the end goal of making sure their political contributions, lobbying activities and interactions with government officials do not jeopardize their eligibility for government contracting opportunities.

In the energy and utility space, Rebecca has worked with utility companies, solar companies, and offshore wind companies on procurement matters and lobbying and political activity compliance. She has also represented clients before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).