Inside the Insiders: Steve Kimbell and Bob Sherman

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2006 by Marcel, Joyce

Scratch any major Vermont headline from the past 20 years and it's a pretty sure bet that lobbyists

Stephen W Kimbell and Bob Sherman have had something to do with it.

Green Mountain Power's recent sale to a Canadian firm? Sure. The new health insurance law? Absolutely. Certainly not the tragic Dartmouth murder case from a few years back? Yup. The governorships of Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean? From the very beginnings. Taking back the Burlington waterfront from the railroads? They have a commemorative spike to thank them for their efforts. Civil unions? Perhaps their masterpiece.

If you want a lesson in contemporary Vermont history, you could not do better than talking to Kimbell, 62, and Sherman, 58, best friends as well as founding partners of the lobbying firm of Kimbell Sherman Ellis, LLP.

Kimbell, a lawyer from the Midwest, is the more buttoned-down and professional-looking of the pair, while Sherman, a former journalist, is a big bear of a guy, bluff and rumpled.

Despite outwardly appearances, however, the two men have a lot in common. Both are ex-football players, for one thing. They both came to Vermont in 1973, although it would take another decade for them to meet. And both are a rare breed: intense, intelligent, competitive, ambitious men who are also wonks and idealists.

They are also sensitive men who regard their biggest mistakes as the few times when they've allowed their tempers to boil over.

"But the beautiful thing about the Vermont General Assembly, and government work in general, is that you usually get a second, third or fourth bite at the apple," Kimbell said.

"My thought, too," Sherman said. "There are no home runs, so there are no strike-outs."

Kimbell and Sherman first met on the sidewalk in front of the Statehouse in 1984, just after Kunin was elected the first female governor of the state of Vermont. Kimbell was running her transition team and Sherman was a reporter for the Rutland Herald and BarreMontpelier Times-Argus. Kimbell, who would soon be taking over Kunin's planning department, recruited Sherman to be her press secretary.

Later on, while fly-fishing in 1987, they decided to start their own firm.

"I remember conversations with them when they were thinking about opening up a business," said Steve Terry, recently retired senior vice president for corporate and legal affairs at long-time KSE client Green Mountain Power. "It was important that Bob not miss a weekly paycheck. He had a big family, things were tight, and he was stepping away from a secure job. It was a big leap."

From the beginning, Terry said, Kimbell and Sherman filled an important new need in state government.

"The Vermont Legislature and state government generally was becoming much more involved in all aspects of private enterprise there were regulations and laws, environmental policy, energy policy, banking policy, even things like how we rebuild roads and bridges," Terry said. "The private sector needed advocacy on one hand, but it also needed people to help it understand how state government works, and how a governor works. Most importantly, it needed to know how decisions get made."

This was exactly the kind of expertise that Kimbell and Sherman offered.

"They had great skills," Terry said. "Bob is a terrific writer. He can make things simple. Steve is a very disciplined individual. He understands in almost a totally intuitive way how legislation flows, how decisions are made, and when is the right time to advocate on behalf of your client during the legislative process. It's a highly refined skill. That's what makes both of them so effective. Whenever there's a tough issue, you want to have the thinking of Bob and Steve. They always have very astute judgments."

Founded in 1987, Kimbell Sherman Ellis (Kevin Ellis joined in 1991) is located in a warren of rooms on one floor in an antique building in downtown Montpelier. It employs 17 people, does about $3 million a year in gross billing and works for large national clients as well as Vermont companies and industries. A small law office, Kimbell & Storrow, is attached to the firm.

Their subsidiary company, Focus, is a leader in tracking and analyzing legislation in all 50 states for a variety of national and international clients. Focus now represents 40 percent of KSE's business.

"Profit margins are smaller than in lobbying, but still pretty good," Sherman said.

"This year they will be more. It's growing."

Personally, Sherman and his wife, teacher Kate Winslow, have been married for 27 years. They have four sons, one of them who now works for KSE. Kimbell, who has a college-aged daughter with his second wife, has been married since 1993 to his third wife, consultant Deborah Graham Kimbell.

Lobbying is a vital part of the First Amendment, Kimbell said.

"Along with freedom of speech and freedom of religion is the right to petition the government," Kimbell said. "'Petition' is an old-fashioned word for influence, for getting the government to do something. If the government is taking action or refuses to take action on something that seriously impacts you or your business, you have the right to go to the government and say, 'Don't do that.' Or 'Don't do it that way, do it this way.' If you're running a business, you don't have time to come to Montpelier and hang around the State house and deliver that message. So you hire a professional to do it."