Michel Petite, a lawyer who in 2013 resigned as chair of the Commission’s ethics committee after his ‘revolving door’ past came to light, claimed that ‘I’m not a lobbyist, I’m a lawyer in a law firm’. Rather than focusing on the details of the case, this contribution is interested in the broader relationship between lawyers and lobbying. Are lawyers a special case of lobbyists? Do lawyers use or abuse their legal expertise to claim legitimacy for their activities? This paper observes how lawyers distance themselves from the ‘unpleasant’ world of lobbying. Most law firms have refused to register with the EU Transparency Register claiming client privilege. Similarly, legal expertise is seen as value-neutral, with concessions being made for legal advice in the Register. The paper discusses implications of these observations for the revolving door phenomenon, concluding that a better understanding of lawyers as lobbyists is needed to address the issue.
