Assistant General Counsel, Government Affairs, Altria Client Services Inc.
Wesley Bizzell serves as Assistant General Counsel, Government Affairs for Altria Client Services Inc. (“ALCS”). Mr. Bizzell provides in-house legal counsel on matters relating to the political, legislative, and lobbying activities of Altria Group, Inc., its services companies, including ALCS, and its operating companies, including Philip Morris USA Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. LLC, John Middleton Co., and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd.
In this role, Mr. Bizzell is responsible for ensuring that Altria and its companies comply with all laws and regulations regarding federal, state, local, and Canadian campaign finance, government ethics, gifts to government officials, lobbying disclosure and reporting, and charitable giving. Overseeing a comprehensive compliance system covering the regulation of government affairs, Mr. Bizzell provides advice and guidance on political law compliance for more than 65 jurisdictions. Mr. Bizzell also supports Altria’s lobbying efforts by providing services related to legislative and regulatory drafting and interpretation. Mr. Bizzell is a member of Altria’s Compliance Leadership Team.
Previously, Mr. Bizzell was an attorney in Winston & Strawn LLP’s Federal Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Practice Group. His career also includes more than six years on Capitol Hill, where he served as an aide to Arkansas Senators David Pryor and Dale Bumpers and handled matters involving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Social Security Administration, Department of Education, and Department of Labor. Additionally, he has served in the Office of General Counsel and the Privatization and Special Projects Branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, where he focused on a myriad of issues involving privatization and government procurement.
While at Winston & Strawn, Mr. Bizzell provided significant representation on political compliance, government affairs, legislative, and regulatory matters to Fortune 500 companies in the corrections, automotive, banking, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and technology-oriented industries, as well as trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and local and territorial governments. He has served as outside ethics counsel to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, provided legal counsel to the election campaigns of gubernatorial and congressional candidates, represented a corporate client in an enforcement action before the Federal Election Commission, and conducted internal investigations related to corporate political activities.
Mr. Bizzell graduated with a B.A. in justice, magna cum laude, from the American University in Washington, D.C. and received a Master of Social Work with a focus in public policy from the Catholic University of America. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor for the Georgetown Law Journal.
Mr. Bizzell is a frequent author and speaker on political compliance law. He serves on the Publications Committee for the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (“COGEL”), a professional organization of government officials with responsibilities or interests in governmental ethics, elections, campaign finance, and lobby laws, and served on the advisory board for the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s 2011 CLE Expo. Mr. Bizzell also lectures on political compliance law issues at many venues, including the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ Corporate Compliance Institute, the COGEL Annual Conference, the American Conference Institute’s National Forum on Corporate Lobbying and Political Activities, and the Practicing Law Institute’s annual Corporate Political Activities conference. Mr. Bizzell’s articles on the topics of political compliance law and lobbying have appeared in Corporate Counsel, Corrections Today, American Jails, the COGEL Guardian, Corrections.Com, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.
Managing Member, Political Law Group
Doug Chalmers practices in the area of federal and state political law and litigation. Before establishing the Political Law Group, he was a partner in the political law and litigation practice groups at McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP. Doug has twice been recognized in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the leading political law attorneys in the nation. Politics magazine has also identified him as one of the most influential Republicans in Georgia.
Doug advises businesses, nonprofit organizations, chambers of commerce, trade associations, political action committees, elected officials, candidates, political parties, lobbyists and government agencies on the federal and state laws that govern involvement in political activities. This includes election law, campaign finance, lobbying, Federal Communications Commission regulations, government contracts, pay-to-play rules and government ethics. He advises on compliance and handles litigation and administrative law proceedings involving these issues. He also has experience in civil litigation involving libel and defamation, wrongful death, insurance coverage, contract disputes, class action consumer fraud, and other matters.
As part of his practice, Doug has successfully defended clients in numerous high-profile cases. His clients have included a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; Georgia's former Governor; a Senate President Pro Tempore and two Speakers of the Georgia House of Representatives; the Senate and House Majority Leaders; Justices of the Georgia Supreme Court; Judges on the Georgia Court of Appeals; the Georgia Republican Party, and the Georgia House Republican Caucus. He was the chief lawyer in Georgia for the 2008 McCain presidential campaign, served as Chairman of Lawyers for Rudy Giuliani in the southeastern United States, and was a Co-Chair of Georgia Lawyers for Romney-Ryan. He is also the Chairman of the Political Activities Subcommittee of the Nonprofit Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia.
Doug is also a frequent speaker in the area of political law, and he has addressed CLE seminars around the country. He has testified before legislative committees concerning government ethics and ethics reform, and is regularly contacted by the media on these issues. Law & Politics and Atlanta Magazine have recognized Doug as a Georgia Super Lawyer Rising Star.
Doug is also active in the community and in civic affairs. He was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Board of Directors of the Georgia Department of Driver Services, and he served as Vice-Chair of the Board. He is on the Board of Governors of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and is the immediate past chairman of the RNLA's Georgia chapter. He is active in the Federalist Society, serving on the Executive Committees of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter and the Free Speech and Election Law Practice Group. He is an Assistant Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 27 in Johns Creek.
Doug received his undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University. He was an editor of the Duke Law Journal and a member of the Moot Court Board, and he received the James S. Bidlake Award for Superior Achievement in Legal Research and Writing. He clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Doug is admitted in Georgia and the District of Columbia.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Jason Torchinsky is a partner at Holtzman Vogel Josefiak PLLC, specializing in campaign finance, election law, lobbying disclosure and issue advocacy groups. Politico recently named him one of the “50 Politicos to Watch,” and in 2007, Campaigns and Elections Magazine named him a “Rising Star of Politics.”
In addition to his practice counseling clients on compliance with campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying disclosure and election laws, Mr. Torchinsky has served as lead counsel in a number of litigation matters. Representative matters in the redistricting area include Louisiana House of Representatives v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 pre-clearance action), City of Sandy Springs v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 bailout action), and Fletcher v. Lamone (D. Md.) (challenging Maryland’s Congressional Districting map). In the campaign finance context, he is currently representing clients in Alliance for America’s Future v. State (Nevada Supreme Court) and Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission (D.D.C.) (Representing intervenor defendants). He has also represented Virginia candidates in recounts and voter registration challenges before various Virginia Circuit Courts.
Mr. Torchinsky frequently lectures on campaign finance redistricting and ethics related subjects and provides commentary to the media on election related matters.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Torchinsky was Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice. During the 2004 election cycle, he served as Deputy General Counsel to Bush-Cheney ’04 and Deputy General Counsel to the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
He holds a B.A. in Government and Public Policy from the College of William and Mary and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary School of Law. He is a member of the Virginia Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the Republican National Lawyers Association and the Federalist Society.
Corporate Disclosure After Citizens United: Legislation, Regulation, and Shareholder Resolutions
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