The end of Patton Boggs half-century as an independent firm brought down the curtain on a style of Washington influence-peddling that Tommy Boggs, who died at age 73 on Monday, helped invent and rode to phenomenal success and riches. Last May, when an enfeebled Patton Boggs reduced to 330 lawyers
scion of the Boggs political family from Louisiana former House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. and Lindy Boggs, who succeeded her husband in Congress after he died Tommy Boggs worked in the Lyndon Johnson administration and then, in 1966, helped start the firm that became Patton Boggs. In
In its heyday, Patton Boggs had grown alongside an expanding federal government, attracting top former officials as they moved through the revolving door to the private sector. Tommy Boggs had rivals Robert Strauss of Akin Gump was one but no one boasted more pull.
environment. Over the years, many major corporations had opened stand-alone lobbying offices. Industry-specific boutiques had proliferated, as had trade associations. The days were long gone when Tommy Boggs could pick up the phone and orchestrate a corporate bailout, as he did for Chrysler in 1979.
