TheHill.com reports that Gibson Guitar has hired the law firm of Crowell & Moring to lobby on the Lacey Act. This is according to Senate disclosure records released earlier this week.
Gibson has been in the headlines since federal agents raided its factories in Tennessee in August, seizing pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. Since then, the agents have been trying to figure out if Gibson was using illegal wood from India in violation of The Lacey Act, which “combats trafficking in ‘illegal’ wildlife, fish and plants,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gibson has been fighting back via social networking, tapping into anti-government anger via Twitter. Gibson also has became something of a poster child for the Republican Party’s campaign against burdensome regulations.
Gibson has called the raid bullying and is still fighting to get wood back from a similar raid that occurred in 2009.
Patrick Donnelly, a former Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forest staffer, and Stephanie Daigle, a former associate administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, are among the Crowell & Moring lobbyists who will be working for Gibson.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
