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Tennessee political heavyweight and business lobbyist Tom Lee has left the Nashville law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP to hang his own shingle.

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Lee, 47, said he also plans to keep practicing law a bit, but he’ll focus on the government affairs side, attempting to offer something the city’s other lobbyists don’t always emphasize in their strategies to influence legislation and public policy.

“What I hope to do is to work with businesses and entities to help form coalitions that will be able to accomplish what sometimes a standing industry group can’t,” he said. “You’ve got to bring lots of people to the table.”

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When are business coalitions necessary?

• When one company or trade group isn’t enough to effect change—or stop it.
• When change is important across a wide platform of industries or businesses.
• When you need to demonstrate breadth and depth of business concern.
• When you want to leverage your reach, your resources, and your possibilities.
• When you just need friends.

If your business or industry is in that position, you need BlairBlvd. 

BlairBlvd’s principal, Tom Lee, knows how to build and lead successful business coalitions in Tennessee that get results.

In 2008-09, Tom led what Tennessee HomeBuilder magazine called “an unprecedented alliance of business, agriculture, and elected officials” to provide “clarity and consistency” in Tennessee’s water quality laws.  The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Business Insider reported that “two years of hard work and long negotiations with the Department of Environment and Conservation as well as other interested parties enabled consensus to be reached.”  The result?  Tennessee Road Builder magazine said the coalition produced “landmark water quality legislation that will have far-reaching impact on the agricultural and development industries.”

We recognize that coalitions are different from everyday government relations. Sometimes, coalitions require only short lives, existing to solve a single, one-off issue.  Sometimes, coalition formation leads to long-term partnerships.  Sometimes, coalitions require you to engage new and unexpected partners.

Always, coalition management requires a deft understanding of the group’s goals, the possibilities, and the obstacles inherent in any group.

Whenever formed and led, however, we firmly believe successful coalitions give you a greater chance of success—and lead to stronger working relationships for your business, trade association, or industry.

“A corporate campaign is a highly sophisticated form of warfare in which a target company is subject to diverse attacks—legislative, regulatory, legal, economic, psychological—the function of which is to so thoroughly undermine confidence in the company that it is no longer able to do business as usual.”—Professor Jarol Manheim, The George Washington University.

Sound familiar?

If so, welcome to the world of the business campaign.  Traditional managerial tactics won’t work.  The success of your business now depends on developing targeted messages, identifying persuadable decisionmakers, managing your opposition, and reaching your business goals—all at campaign speed.

Good thing you’re at BlairBlvd.  We create value for your business through strategic discipline across all your ways and means of persuasion, including some you didn’t realize you had.  We recognize when you’re in a business campaign not of your choosing, and why you may choose to start one of your own.

But why us?  Why not a law firm, or a public relations firm, or a media specialist?

Because only BlairBlvd delivers all that value in one place.

Tom Lee has served as a senior advisor to Tennessee’s most surprisingly successful campaigns, partisan and nonpartisan, advising the state’s highest-profile political figures and largest businesses.  Tom’s 28 years in Tennessee media, politics, and law mean unparalleled value and expertise for your business campaign.

BlairBlvd recognizes the business campaign and knows how to win in all its forums: from the television studio to the halls of the legislature, from the media event to the attack ad, from the courtroom to the boardroom, we understand the business campaign from strategic development through tactical implementation.

“Companies are not organized to wage war,” writes Professor Manheim.  “Corporate campaigns are wars.  Corporate cultures were never simply intended or designed for hand-to-hand combat.  Corporate campaigners count on that for their edge.”

BlairBlvd is where you get your edge back.