Public Affairs & Government Relations
Most decisions that matter are settled in the conditions around them — the policy, the regulation, the relationships — long before any formal vote. Public affairs is the discipline of shaping those conditions; government relations is the direct engagement with those who govern within them. Lincoln advises on both, and then executes, in all fifty states.
What public affairs is
Public affairs is the work of shaping the policy, regulatory, and political environment around an organization, and engaging the people and institutions that decide an outcome. It is broader than any single contact with government. It reaches regulators, legislators, the press, industry, and the constituencies that carry weight on a question — and aligns them around a result. The aim is not to win the argument in the room, but to settle the terms of the question before the room ever meets.
Government relations and regulatory strategy
Government relations is the direct, ongoing engagement with government and regulators — the relationships, the briefings, and the case made to the officials who decide. It sits inside public affairs as the channel to the decision-maker. Lobbying is one tactic within it, not the whole of it. Around that engagement we build the regulatory strategy: reading where a rule or a bill is heading, identifying who moves it, and positioning the organization early, while the outcome is still open.
Coalitions and stakeholder engagement
Few decisions turn on a single voice. They turn on who lines up behind a position, and how credibly. We map the stakeholders around a question, engage them on the merits, and build the coalitions that give a position weight — industry, associations, affected constituencies, and the experts whose judgment is trusted. Stakeholder engagement is the patient work of understanding what each party needs and finding the ground they can share.
Across borders
Policy, regulation, and approvals look different in every jurisdiction, and a position that holds in one capital can fail in the next. We bring one disciplined method to that variety, with local fluency in each market — engaging governments and regulators in more than seventy countries, on five continents. The multinational team is the instrument: eighteen nationalities, twenty-one languages, working twenty-four hours a day, so the engagement is native to the place, not imported into it.
From advice to outcome
Counsel is where most of this work stops — the memo, the strategy, the recommendation. Lincoln also executes. We build the coalition, organize the constituencies, and run the campaign that carries a position from advice to outcome. Often the decisive part is the quiet groundwork — the engagement and the alignment that settle a question before it is ever put to a vote. That pairing of strategy and execution is proven across more than a thousand organizations and nineteen industries.
Common questions
- What is public affairs?
- Public affairs is the practice of shaping the policy, regulatory, and political environment around an organization, and engaging the stakeholders who decide an outcome — regulators, legislators, industry, and the constituencies that carry weight on a question.
- What is the difference between public affairs and lobbying?
- Lobbying is one tactic: direct contact with officials to advocate a position. Public affairs is far broader — shaping the whole environment around a decision through regulatory strategy, coalitions, stakeholder engagement, and communications. Lobbying is one channel within it.
- What is government relations?
- Government relations is the direct, ongoing engagement with government and regulators — the relationships, briefings, and case made to the officials who decide. It is the channel to the decision-maker within the wider work of public affairs.
- What is cross-border or international government relations?
- It is the practice of engaging governments and regulators across more than one jurisdiction, where policy and approvals differ by country. Lincoln applies one disciplined method with local fluency in each market, in more than seventy countries.
- How is Lincoln's public affairs work different from other firms?
- Most firms stop at counsel. Lincoln advises and then executes — building the coalition, organizing the constituencies, and running the campaign that move a decision from strategy to outcome.
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