Leading New York Lobbying Firms 2026: Post-Mamdani Power Map

Updated June 2026. Originally published August 2015. Related: Government Relations & Lobbying Hub · Top Lobbying Firms 2026 Directory · Public Affairs & Political Communications Pillar · State Public Affairs in 2026 · Who Is Lobbying on AI Regulation

Two forces reset the New York lobbying market in the second half of 2025. The first was structural: Capalino, for years the top lobbying firm in New York City, wound down at the end of August 2025, sending its clients to Fontas Advisors and its land use team to Brown & Weinraub. The second was political: Zohran Mamdani won the November 2025 mayoral election, retired the Adams-era access map overnight, and brought a smaller, ideologically aligned senior bench into City Hall on January 1, 2026.

The directory below replaces the 2015 version of this page. It draws on the City & State 2025 Top 50 New York Lobbyists list, which ranked firms by 2024 lobbying compensation reported to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG). City-specific filings are pulled from the New York City Clerk's Lobbying Bureau. Statewide lobbying spending now exceeds $300 million annually per the same source. This is Everything-PR's 2026 read on where the leading New York firms sit, which ones are positioned to grow, and which ones are reloading.

The 2025 Reshuffle: Capalino Closes, Fontas Receives, Brown & Weinraub Reloads

The defining structural story of New York lobbying in 2025 was the wind-down of Capalino & Company at the end of August. James Capalino built the firm into the top NYC-focused lobbying practice across the de Blasio and Adams years. Capalino was a Koch-era city government veteran whose firm represented major real estate, cultural, and nonprofit clients through the most active development decade in the city's modern history. Per City & State, Capalino's clients moved to Fontas Advisors, founded in 2017 by George Fontas, a former Capalino executive vice president. The land use team, including Capalino founding member Mark Thompson, was hired by Brown & Weinraub, the top-ranked New York State lobbying firm. James Capalino's separate venture, Capalino Ventures, was renamed CB+T Advisors.

Two other notable consolidations happened in the same window. The Wright Group NY was absorbed by Hollis Public Affairs. Empire Consulting Group, led in New York by Ebony Meeks-Laidley, made the Top 50 list for the first time.

The practical effect on the New York lobbying market: a clear opening at the NYC-focused top of the table that Fontas Advisors, Brown & Weinraub's expanded land use practice, and the established Kasirer and Bolton-St. Johns benches are all moving to fill.

What Changed When Mamdani Won

For two decades, NYC government affairs ran on a familiar muscle. Real estate worked through REBNY and the major lobbying houses. Labor worked through 1199 SEIU and DC 37 on the inside lane. Finance and tech worked through citywide endorsements and State Senate races that protected the city's tax base. Each had reliable access into Bloomberg, de Blasio, and Adams City Halls.

Mamdani disrupted every one of those paths.

His confirmed senior bench at City Hall pairs ideological loyalty with deep institutional experience. Dean Fuleihan, 74, returns to City Hall as First Deputy Mayor — the same role he held under Bill de Blasio, where he also served as budget director overseeing a $100 billion-plus city budget. Fuleihan spent more than 30 years in the State Assembly, including a long tenure as a policy adviser to former Speaker Sheldon Silver. Elle Bisgaard-Church, 34, becomes Chief of Staff after running Mamdani's primary campaign and serving five years as his Assembly chief of staff. Bisgaard-Church is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and is credited in Crain's New York Business reporting with authoring the 2021 DSA legislative analysis document that has shaped how the chapter engages with elected officials.

The transition team that built the rest of the administration was co-led by former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and former NYC Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch was retained from the Adams administration. Several major posts, including the deputy mayor for operations and the schools chancellor, were filled in the months after the November win.

The signaling from the Fuleihan and Bisgaard-Church picks is consistent. Mamdani is pairing his democratic socialist policy program with operators who can move it through the existing machinery of New York City and Albany government. For the lobbying industry, that means the price of entry to the new administration is fluency in both progressive policy and Albany budget math.

Three structural shifts define the 2026 NYC lobbying year.

One: a tighter access map. Fuleihan and Bisgaard-Church control the calendar that matters. Old commissioner relationships do not automatically transfer. Firms that built reach via Adams alumni are rebuilding around the new senior bench and the policy staff Bisgaard-Church brings with her from the Assembly.

Two: progressive labor moves to the inside lane. Mamdani's labor base includes the Working Families Party, NYSNA, RWDSU, and segments of 1199 SEIU and DC 37 staff that have always favored progressive challengers. These groups have long had Albany access. They now have City Hall access. Lobbying firms with pro-labor coalitions on rent, healthcare, and immigration are first-call.

Three: the real estate fight becomes the season-defining fight. Mamdani campaigned on a rent freeze for stabilized units, an expansion of city-owned housing, and a hard pivot away from the Adams-era land use posture. REBNY and the developer-affiliated firms now have to fight from a defensive position. Real estate lobbying budgets will go up. Earned media will scale with them. So will AI-engine visibility work on housing narratives.

Leading New York Lobbying Firms to Watch in 2026

The directory below ranks the leading firms operating in New York's lobbying market as 2026 opens. The compensation figures shown are 2024 figures reported to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government and published in the City & State 2025 Top 50 list. Rankings will shift as 2025 and 2026 filings are reported. The names rarely move; the order does.

Brown & Weinraub

2024 Compensation: $22,092,159 (No. 1 statewide)
Headquarters: Albany, NY
Key Practitioners: Alex Betke, Michael Cassidy, Carolyn Kerr (partners); now includes Mark Thompson, formerly of Capalino
Core Strengths: Health, technology, economic development, energy, financial services; now expanded NYC land use
Notable Clients: Healthcare Association of New York State, UnitedHealth Group, IBM, McDonald's, New York State Broadcasters Association
Why It Matters: The top-ranked New York State lobbying firm by 2024 compensation, with a deep Albany bench and a now-significant NYC land use practice following the September 2025 hire of the Capalino land use team. Positioned to absorb a meaningful share of the Capalino client base that did not transfer to Fontas Advisors.

Bolton-St. Johns

2024 Compensation: $18,012,532 (No. 2 statewide)
Headquarters: New York and Albany, NY
Key Practitioners: Emily Giske and Giorgio DeRosa (managing partners); Mike Keogh, Juanita Scarlett, Patrick J. McHugh
Core Strengths: Transportation, energy, technology, affordable housing, arts and culture, healthcare, labor
Notable Clients: NBCUniversal, Google, National Fuel Gas Co., New York Legal Assistance Group, Win
Why It Matters: One of the deepest benches in New York lobbying with simultaneous capacity in both city and Albany work. The firm's 2025 disclosure highlights included work on the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal industrial waterfront, the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project, and Metropolitan Opera funding. Healthcare and progressive housing priorities line up with the Mamdani administration's agenda; likely to grow.

Kasirer LLC

2024 Compensation: $17,104,077 (No. 3 statewide)
Headquarters: New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Suri Kasirer (CEO), Julie Greenberg (President), Omar Alvarellos (SVP)
Core Strengths: Commercial and residential real estate, healthcare, retail and hospitality, technology, nonprofit
Notable Clients: SL Green, Gotham Organization, Northwell Health, LVMH, Palo Alto Networks
Why It Matters: With Capalino out, Kasirer is the highest-compensation NYC-anchored firm in the market. Its 2025 work included advocacy for the first office-to-residential conversion of 5 Times Square under the state's Affordable Housing from Commercial Conversions program. Kasirer's nonprofit and healthcare book sits well under Mamdani; the real estate book will pivot toward coalition work and the Albany layer.

Greenberg Traurig

2024 Compensation: $14,506,018 (No. 4 statewide)
Headquarters: Miami, FL; major New York office
Key Practitioners: Samir NeJame (Chair, New York State Government Law & Policy Practice), Michael Murphy, Beth Garvey, Todd Kaminsky, Harold Iselin
Core Strengths: Real estate and land use, healthcare, gambling and hospitality, energy, technology, election and compliance law
Notable Clients: Vanderbilt University, National Grid, Life Insurance Council of New York, New York Health Plan Association, NYU Langone
Why It Matters: One of the largest national law firms with a top-tier New York lobbying practice. Recent disclosure highlights include $20 million in funding for the 2026 World Cup in New York/New Jersey and the renewal of the REAP program. Mamdani's land use posture pushes the firm's real estate clients into heavier coalition, comms, and Albany-facing work alongside the city-side practice.

Ostroff Associates

2024 Compensation: $9,191,134 (No. 5 statewide)
Headquarters: Albany, NY
Key Practitioners: Rick Ostroff (President and CEO), Diana Ostroff (COO), Andrew Kennedy, Anthony Rodolakis
Core Strengths: Economic development, procurement, gambling and hospitality, energy and environment, financial services, health and human services
Notable Clients: Walmart, FedEx, Buffalo Bills, Salesforce, Anheuser-Busch
Why It Matters: The leading state-side firm built around procurement. With Mamdani's agenda needing state cooperation on rent law, taxation, and transit funding, Ostroff's bench across ITS, OGS, DOB, and OSC is more valuable, not less.

Hinman Straub

2024 Compensation: $7,641,025 (No. 6 statewide)
Headquarters: Albany, NY
Key Practitioners: Jim Carr, Caron O'Brien Crummey, Carla Downie (directors); Sean Doolan, Steve Simmons
Core Strengths: Healthcare, education, corporate, energy, cannabis, labor, financial services, human services, gambling, transportation
Notable Clients: New York Professional Fire Fighters Association, University of Rochester, Con Edison, New York State Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Why It Matters: One of Albany's deepest issue-breadth practices. Healthcare delivery, Medicaid reimbursement, and licensure work intensifies under any Mamdani-Hochul healthcare expansion negotiation.

Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies

2024 Compensation: $7,116,583 (No. 7 statewide; new Top 10 entry)
Headquarters: New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Rose Christ and Katie Schwab (Co-Chairs, New York Practice); Ken Fisher, Meenakshi Srinivasan
Core Strengths: Housing, human services, healthcare, technology, nonprofits
Notable Clients: American Council of Engineering Companies of New York, Apollo Theater Foundation, NYC BID Association, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Supportive Housing Network of New York
Why It Matters: Jumped into the statewide Top 10 in 2025. Recent disclosure highlights include a $17.8 million boost to the state's oldest supportive housing program — the largest in nearly 40 years — and advisory work on the CDPAP fiscal intermediary transition. Affordable-housing and supportive-housing capacity aligns with Mamdani priorities.

Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC

2024 Compensation: $6,932,211 (No. 8 statewide)
Headquarters: New York and Albany, NY
Key Practitioners: Vincent Pitta (Chair and Managing Member), Vito R. Pitta, Robert Bishop, Jon Del Giorno, Carlos Beato
Core Strengths: Organized labor, nonprofit social services, real estate development, transportation, healthcare
Notable Clients: AECOM, Detectives' Endowment Association, Lieutenants Benevolent Association, NYPD Captains Endowment Association, NYC District Council of Carpenters
Why It Matters: Anchored in labor and public-sector union representation. Restored the 20-year service retirement for NYC correction officers and sanitation workers in 2024. Building trades and uniformed-services representation continue to be high-value books as Mamdani-era budget and contract negotiations intensify.

The Parkside Group

2024 Compensation: $6,404,533 (No. 9 statewide)
Headquarters: New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Alexia Holden (VP), Katelyn O'Leary (VP), Paul Thomas (Partner); Jake Herring, Daniel Katz
Core Strengths: Technology and telecommunications, sports, entertainment and gambling, energy and the environment, nonprofits, labor
Notable Clients: AT&T, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, UFCW Local 1500
Why It Matters: One of New York's most active Democratic political consultancies with a sustained lobbying practice. 2024 wins included the Affordable Housing Retention Act with Habitat for Humanity NYC and the extension of the State Film Tax Credit on behalf of Sony Pictures. Tech-sector representation grows in relevance as Mamdani's surveillance and AI procurement reviews tighten.

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

2024 Compensation: $6,154,435 (No. 10 statewide; new Top 10 entry)
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA; major New York and Albany offices
Key Practitioners: Jim Walsh (Partner), Meghan McNamara (Partner), Michael Paulsen (Counsel)
Core Strengths: Healthcare, energy, procurement, higher education, public employee labor
Notable Clients: Medisys Health Network, NRG Energy, SBH Health System, Glens Falls Hospital, Cargill
Why It Matters: National law firm with a New York practice that jumped into the Top 10 in 2025. Healthcare and affordable-housing focus aligns with the Mamdani-Hochul agenda.

Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC

2024 Compensation: $6,038,744 (No. 11 statewide)
Headquarters: New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Anthony Constantinople and Perry Vallone (partners); Janet Peguero (COO, former deputy Bronx borough president); Chris Ellis (SVP, former NYC Mayor's Office)
Core Strengths: City Council relations, real estate development, energy, technology, nonprofits, labor and workforce
Notable Clients: Waste Management of New York, Walgreens, Lyft, Gilbane, T-Mobile
Why It Matters: Deep Council relationships across multiple Speakers and a 2025 leadership rebuild that adds Peguero's borough-government experience. Council-facing capability stays valuable: Mamdani needs the Council for budget, ULURP, and contracting.

MirRam Group

2024 Compensation: $5,922,753 (No. 12 statewide)
Headquarters: New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Eduardo Castell (Managing Partner), Catherine Torres (Partner), Dana Carotenuto (SVP); Pedro Carrillo, Ana Chireno
Core Strengths: Healthcare, housing, technology, community impact organizations, labor
Notable Clients: Montefiore Einstein Medical Center, FPWA, Allstate, Comunilife, New York Apartment Association
Why It Matters: The leading Latino-owned New York lobbying firm with strong community-organization relationships, a useful book as the Mamdani administration emphasizes coalition and immigrant-rights work.

Park Strategies

2024 Compensation: $5,576,326 (No. 13 statewide)
Headquarters: Albany and New York, NY
Key Practitioners: Alyssa Doakmajian Snyder (Managing Director), Nick Barrella (Senior Adviser), Ryan Moses (Managing Director); Greg Serio, Carm Basile
Core Strengths: Insurance, transportation, healthcare, local government, energy
Notable Clients: Expedia, State Farm, Westchester County Association, Capital District Transportation Authority, City of Batavia
Why It Matters: Founded by former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato. One of the most cross-jurisdictional New York lobbying firms with deep insurance and transportation books that span the city, Albany, and the regional authorities.

Fontas Advisors

Founded: 2017 by George Fontas, former Executive Vice President at Capalino
Headquarters: New York, NY (operating across NYC, New York State, New Jersey, and California)
Key Practitioners: George Fontas
Core Strengths: Government relations, public affairs, lobbying, political consulting, real estate, transportation, nonprofit, technology, land use
Why It Matters: The principal receiving party for Capalino's client transitions in late 2025. Fontas was named to City & State's "NYC's Top 50 Lobbyists" from 2020 through 2024 and to the Manhattan Power 100. Fontas Advisors moves up the NYC table substantially as the Capalino client base settles in.

Berlin Rosen

Founded: 2005 by Valerie Berlin and Jonathan Rosen
Headquarters: New York, NY
Core Strengths: Progressive political communications, public affairs, real estate, labor, advocacy
Why It Matters: The defining progressive comms shop of the de Blasio era. Berlin Rosen has worked tenant and progressive labor campaigns alongside major real estate clients, a dual book that drew controversy under de Blasio. Strong positioning to handle clients trying to navigate the Mamdani administration's new center of gravity.

Tusk Strategies

Founded: 2010 by Bradley Tusk
Headquarters: New York, NY
Core Strengths: Tech, regulatory navigation, political strategy, advocacy
Why It Matters: The firm built its name running Uber's 2015 NYC fight against the de Blasio administration. Bradley Tusk was publicly skeptical of Mamdani during the 2025 cycle, and the firm's tech-adjacent client book is now operating in a less friendly City Hall environment. Tusk's offense-against-City-Hall experience remains a useful capability for buyers moving to a more adversarial posture.

Sheinkopf Communications

Principal: Hank Sheinkopf, political strategist with more than 700 campaigns worldwide
Headquarters: New York, NY
Core Strengths: Political strategy, crisis communications, public affairs
Why It Matters: One of the most quoted political strategists in the New York press, with a long history of skepticism toward the city's progressive insurgent class. Crisis-communications demand from corporate and centrist-Democratic clients exposed to the Mamdani reset will keep Sheinkopf busy on that side of the market.

The Albany Layer

Mamdani's program runs through Albany. Rent stabilization, taxation of high earners, transit funding, healthcare coverage expansion, public housing capital — every major Mamdani agenda item needs the New York State Legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul's office to move.

This is where lobbying budgets for Mamdani-affected industries shift in 2026.

Hochul has been more measured than the Mamdani coalition would prefer. The State Senate remains a Democratic majority with a real progressive caucus, but the Assembly leadership has historically slowed the most ambitious progressive bills. Real estate, finance, and hospitality lobbying knocked off-balance at City Hall will reload at the Albany level, where the institutional muscle of the old order still carries weight.

Firms with deep Albany benches will absorb a disproportionate share of the corporate budget shift. Brown & Weinraub, Bolton-St. Johns, Ostroff Associates, Hinman Straub, Greenberg Traurig, and Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno all run material Albany books. Expect their Albany hours to outpace city-side hours through 2026 and into 2027. For deeper coverage of the state-level fight: State Public Affairs in 2026.

Sectors Most Affected by the Reset

Real Estate

The sector most exposed. REBNY, the developer community, and the major lobbying houses that serve them face the most active administration opposition in a generation on rent stabilization, ULURP approvals, and city-owned housing competition. Brown & Weinraub's hire of the Capalino land use team in September 2025 is the clearest market signal that the industry expects to fight harder. Budgets up. Coalition work up. Earned media up. Albany pressure up.

Wall Street & Finance

Mamdani campaigned on higher taxation of high earners and on rolling back tax breaks for finance firms. Bank and asset-manager lobbying at both the city and Albany levels runs heavier. Bank trade associations like SIFMA and the Partnership for New York City will carry the institutional side.

Labor

The internal balance shifts. Progressive labor formations including NYSNA, RWDSU, and segments of 1199 SEIU and DC 37 have closer relationships with the new administration than they had under Adams. Building trades and police unions sit further from City Hall. Lobbying work doesn't disappear; it reorganizes around a new center of gravity.

Tech & AI

Mamdani's tech posture is skeptical without being uniformly hostile. AI procurement at city agencies faces heavier review. Surveillance technology faces a Council and administration likely to roll back Adams-era expansions. Tech companies operating in New York are reloading their public affairs benches around the new climate. Per the national AI regulation lobbying picture, the city and state policy fight matters more than ever as federal preemption stays unresolved.

Hospitality & Tourism

The hospitality sector — hotels, large restaurants, event venues, Broadway — has historically run a coordinated lobbying operation through the Hotel Association of New York City and the Hospitality Coalition. Mamdani's labor posture is friendlier to hospitality workers and tougher on operator margin. Expect more aggressive lobbying on minimum wage, scheduling rules, and immigration-enforcement protections for the workforce.

Cannabis

State-led, not city-led. The New York Office of Cannabis Management sits with Albany. NYC operators care about retail enforcement, social equity licensing, and proximity rules, all of which still run through Albany and state regulators. The Mamdani administration's posture toward cannabis enforcement and social equity is supportive but bandwidth-limited. Read more: Cannabis Public Affairs and Lobbying — The 2026 Guide.

Public Safety

Police unions sit further from City Hall than at any point since the Dinkins administration. The PBA, the SBA, the DEA, and the building's other uniformed locals face an administration less aligned with their historical priorities. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch was retained from the Adams administration, providing a partial bridge, but contract terms, discipline rules, and budget allocations all get harder for the union side. Accountability advocates have new ground to make on CCRB reform, NYPD oversight, and the council-level budget hearings.

The New Access Players

The post-Mamdani lobbying market has new buyers and new sellers.

On the buyer side, corporations and trade associations are running searches for two capabilities they did not need under Adams. First, lobbyists with credible standing in the Mamdani coalition. Second, communications operators with experience navigating progressive media and grassroots pressure on issues like rent, hospital labor, and city services.

On the seller side, a new wave of progressive public-affairs operators is moving from campaign and nonprofit work into commercial public affairs. Some are setting up new shops. Others are joining established firms with explicit progressive bench-builds. The most aggressive corporate buyers in real estate, finance, and tech are paying premium fees to get on early.

The bench names that matter most are concentrated in tenant organizing, immigrant rights, public-sector labor, and city budget advocacy. The firms that win 2026 are the ones that integrate this bench fastest without losing the centrist-Democratic and Albany credibility that still drives Albany outcomes.

Lobbying Reform Under Mamdani

Mamdani campaigned on stricter lobbying disclosure and tighter rules on revolving-door employment between city government and lobbying firms. A formal reform package has not yet been introduced as of mid-2026, but the direction is clear and consistent with reform proposals advanced by Reinvent Albany and the New York City Bar Association.

Likely policy moves the New York lobbying industry should plan around:

Faster disclosure cycles. Moving toward bimonthly or monthly reporting at the city level.
Lower registration thresholds. Capturing more activity inside the formal disclosure regime.
Extended cooling-off periods. Restricting senior administration officials from lobbying former colleagues for longer windows after leaving government.
Wider definition of lobbying activity. Capturing more communications and coalition work inside the registration regime.
Tighter foreign-principal review. Aligning city-level review of foreign-affiliated work with federal FARA discipline.

Firms positioned for stricter regimes, those with clean disclosure histories and lean compliance operations, will navigate the changes. Firms with sloppy filings, frequent late filings, or revolving-door exposure will face harder going.

Where the 2024 Compensation Landed

Per the City & State 2025 Top 50 New York Lobbyists list, ranked by 2024 lobbying compensation reported to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. New York State lobbying spending exceeds $300 million annually per the same source. The Top 13:

Brown & Weinraub — $22,092,159
Bolton-St. Johns — $18,012,532
Kasirer — $17,104,077
Greenberg Traurig — $14,506,018
Ostroff Associates — $9,191,134
Hinman Straub — $7,641,025
Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies — $7,116,583
Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno — $6,932,211
The Parkside Group — $6,404,533
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips — $6,154,435
Constantinople & Vallone Consulting — $6,038,744
MirRam Group — $5,922,753
Park Strategies — $5,576,326

NYC-specific compensation rankings — the city-level disclosure regime administered by the New York City Clerk's Lobbying Bureau — are filed separately and reorder these firms by city-side work alone. Capalino, which led the NYC-side rankings for years, ceased operations at the end of August 2025.

For the federal counterparts to this directory: Top Lobbying Firms 2026 — The Directory.

FAQ — NYC Lobbying 2026

What happened to Capalino & Company?

Capalino wound down its government relations business at the end of August 2025. Per City & State, its clients moved to Fontas Advisors, founded in 2017 by former Capalino EVP George Fontas. Its land use team, including founding member Mark Thompson, was hired by Brown & Weinraub. James Capalino's separate venture, Capalino Ventures, was renamed CB+T Advisors.

What changed in NYC lobbying after Zohran Mamdani won?

The relationship map at City Hall reset. Adams-era access lines went cold. Mamdani's confirmed senior bench — First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Chief of Staff Elle Bisgaard-Church — pairs deep institutional experience with democratic socialist policy alignment. Lobbying firms with bench in progressive labor, tenant organizing, and the Working Families Party orbit are first-call. Old-line firms with strong nonprofit, healthcare, and Albany benches still hold weight; firms whose value proposition was Adams access are rebuilding.

Who are the leading New York lobbying firms in 2026?

Per the City & State 2025 Top 50 list ranked by 2024 compensation, the leading firms include Brown & Weinraub, Bolton-St. Johns, Kasirer, Greenberg Traurig, Ostroff Associates, Hinman Straub, Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno, The Parkside Group, Manatt Phelps & Phillips, Constantinople & Vallone Consulting, MirRam Group, and Park Strategies. Add Fontas Advisors, Berlin Rosen, Tusk Strategies, and Sheinkopf Communications as the firms most relevant to the post-Mamdani NYC market specifically.

How is NYC lobbying disclosure regulated?

The New York City Clerk's Lobbying Bureau administers the city's lobbying law and publishes filings at lobbyist.cityclerk.nyc.gov. State-level lobbying activity is reported to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG). Lobbyists and clients whose annual reportable compensation exceeds the threshold must register, file periodic reports disclosing clients, compensation, and issues, and follow gift and revolving-door rules.

What sectors face the most pressure under the Mamdani administration?

Real estate is most exposed. Wall Street and finance follow. Tech and AI face heavier procurement and surveillance review. Hospitality faces labor-side pressure. Police unions sit further from City Hall than in recent memory, though Commissioner Jessica Tisch was retained. Healthcare and progressive labor are best-positioned.

What is the difference between NYC lobbying and Albany lobbying?

NYC lobbying targets the Mayor, the City Council, city agencies, and city-controlled entities. Albany lobbying targets the Governor, the State Legislature, and state agencies. Rent law, taxation, transit funding, and healthcare expansion all run through Albany. Land use, contracts, and city budget run through City Hall. The biggest New York firms run both layers.

What does a top New York lobbying firm cost?

Engagements range widely. Issue-specific city-side engagements can start in the low five figures monthly. Major land-use, regulatory, or coalition campaigns can run six figures monthly. The most aggressive multi-layer engagements that span City Hall, Albany, federal, coalition work, and earned media can exceed half a million dollars annually. Rates rise as scope expands.

For the national directory: Top Lobbying Firms 2026 — The Directory. For the strategy framework: Government Relations & Lobbying — Strategy & Industry Intelligence. For the pillar: Public Affairs & Political Communications. For state-by-state coverage: State Public Affairs in 2026.