Lobbying World

• Mitch Glazier will be succeeding Cary Sherman as head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when he retires at the end of 2018. Sherman started working for the RIAA in 1974 as an outside counsel at Arnold & Porter, and then joined the organization in 1997 as general counsel before becoming CEO in 2011. Glazier, who serves as senior executive vice president, has been promoted to president. In January 2019, he will become the group’s chairman and chief executive. He previously served as chief counsel for intellectual property to the House Judiciary Committee and serves as the chairman of the board for the charity Musicians on Call.

 • The global law firm Paul Hastings added Dina Ellis Rochkind as a counsel to its financial technology and payments practice. She comes from the office of Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), where she served as Washington director. She has previously served as vice president of federal government affairs for Quicken Loans and director of government affairs for the automaker Chrysler Group. Ellis Rochkind previously held senior roles on the Senate Banking Committee, the House Financial Services Committee and the Treasury Department.

{mosads}• Cornerstone Government Affairs hired Jimmy Centers and Matt Paul to run the firm’s new public relations arm, Cornerstone Public Affairs. Paul most recently worked as chief of staff to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) during his vice presidential run in 2016. He had also worked for former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, both in the Obama administration and during Vilsack’s time as governor of Iowa. Centers previously worked as a top press aide to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and the state’s lieutenant governor, Kim Reynolds. 

• Erik Komendant has joined the Association for Accessible Medicines as vice president of federal affairs. He previously worked at America’s Health Insurance Plans. On Capitol Hill, Komendant served as policy director for the Blue Dog Coalition.

• Washington has a new firm specializing in advising clients who hold government contracts known as Nichols Liu. The small firm of 10 lawyers was launched by Robert Nichols, the former co-chair of Covington & Burling’s government contracts practice, and by Andy Liu, who was recently the general counsel of the Social Security Administration. The firm is packed with other former administration and Pentagon officials.