Van Ness Feldman is pleased to announce that former US Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) will join the firm as Senior Policy Advisor.  Senator Landrieu will advise clients on various public policy, strategic, and regulatory issues with an emphasis on energy, natural resources, and infrastructure matters. 

“I am proud to join Van Ness Feldman.  I have always respected the firm and worked closely with them during my 18 years in the Senate.   Their substantive and sophisticated approach to important legal and public policy issues in the areas of energy, the environment and natural resources was a major factor in my decision making process.  It is a bipartisan law firm that has its roots in the Congress itself, being founded in 1977 by four senior counsels of key House and Senate legislative committees.  I look forward to being part of the Van Ness Feldman team to help businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations achieve solutions for the wide range of challenges they face,” said Landrieu.

Senator Landrieu was elected in 1996, the first woman elected from Louisiana to a full term in the United States Senate.  In 2011, she became chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.  She became part of the first ever women-led committee when she chaired the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship with then ranking member Olympia Snowe (R-ME). She then went on to chair the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and worked closely with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) from 2014 to 2015.

“We are honored to welcome Senator Landrieu to our firm,” said Chair, Richard Agnew. “Mary is known as being one of the most effective, passionate, and bipartisan members of the Senate.  Her knowledge, experience, and leadership skills will be a tremendous asset to our clients.  Her collaborative style, tenacity, and focus on results will advance our firm’s core practice areas and makes her an ideal fit with Van Ness Feldman.”

“Senator Landrieu represents a major enhancement in the public policy capabilities of our firm,” said Bob Szabo, who coordinates the firm’s public policy practice. “We have long admired her work in the Senate on behalf of the people of Louisiana, and particularly for her national leadership on energy issues. Senator Landrieu is widely recognized as a key leader in the areas of disaster response management, coastal restoration, and balanced development of public lands and assets. We enjoyed working with her on a number of major issues in the energy and natural resources arena, and look forward to the opportunity to continue that work with her on behalf of our clients.”

Senator Landrieu will be joining Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA6), a 36-year veteran of the House of Representatives, and former top-ranking Democrat to the House Appropriations Committee, as part of the Van Ness Feldman public policy team.

Senator Landrieu will be accompanied to Van Ness Feldman by her Executive Assistant, Ms. Marianna Knister, an LSU graduate and native New Orleanian, who joins the firm’s policy practice after working for Landrieu in the Senate.