A Visit With Eric Ebenstein
POET’s Eric Ebenstein presented on senior-level state government relations strategy at the 2016 State and Local Government Relations Conference.
Eric Ebenstein
State Government Affairs Executive
POET LLC
You were a trial lawyer before you became a lobbyist?
Yes, for two law firms in New York City. I handled civil cases, and I never really liked it. When I defended a client that had been sued, I wasn’t always comfortable in that role. Sometimes, I even thought I was representing the bad guys. And even when I believed my client was in the right, I didn’t enjoy the work. I found it to be mind-numbing drudgery. I enjoy what I do now much more for a lot of reasons.
But there were surely benefits — things you learned in law school and from working as a trial lawyer that are applicable to your work today?
Definitely. In law school, you learn critical thinking and critical writing. You learn to make your argument clearly and concisely.
People don’t always associate writing by people in the legal profession with the clear and concise.
That’s true. Maybe it depends on whether the lawyer doing the writing is billing by the hour!
Can you talk about your work at the U.S. Department of Transportation?
I was a lawyer there, too, representing DOT when it was sued. I also did legal work to make sure automakers complied with federal fuel efficiency standards. I wasn’t crazy about that work either, but I was getting closer to what I really love. I was in Washington, dealing with policy matters, and I was working more closely with other people. That’s what I enjoy most about lobbying. You’re dealing with people face-to-face. It’s interactive.
Before you came to work for POET, you were with Hewlett-Packard during Meg Whitman’s time as CEO. Tell us something about her we might not know.
I didn’t have too many dealings with her, but what impressed me was how she conducted herself. She never carried herself like some billionaire CEO. She didn’t have a big entourage. Once, when she came to our Washington office, she rode up the elevator alone and walked into the office with a backpack slung over her shoulder. She stuck her hand out, said, “Hi, I’m Meg,” and was content to sit at a cube and do her work on the laptop she pulled out of her backpack.
What do you enjoy most about your work at POET?
I don’t do much work inside the Beltway. I like working at the state level, in the “laboratories of democracy.” I think Americans who look askance at lobbyists might view this profession more favorably if they knew how the system works at the state and local level. That’s where we deal with elected officials who have to get things done and who actually enjoy working with their colleagues across the aisle.
Can you recommend a book that you found helpful in your understanding of politics and policy?
When I was at Lehigh University, I was part of a semester-abroad program in Washington, D.C., where we read Showdown at Gucci Gulch by Alan Murray and Jeffrey Birnbaum. It’s about tax reform in the mid-1980s and the lobbyists and legislators who worked out the details. It focuses on the really smart people with different perspectives who worked together to achieve the end product. That book that gave me a good sense early on of the work I’m doing now.
Wait a minute. A semester-abroad program in Washington, D.C.?
When you go to school in Bethlehem, Penn., Washington, D.C. is another country.
Reach Eric at 202.756.5602 or [email protected].
