News: S-3 Group and West Front Strategies will merge, creating a new GOP leadership powerhouse ahead of the next Congress.
S-3 and West Front, both of which have a pile of blue-chip clients, will have more than $20 million in combined revenue this year, according to lobbying disclosure forms and both firms’ leadership.
S-3 currently represents H&R Block, Doordash, the Business Roundtable, Micron, Humana, Meta, Google, Duke Energy, LVMH, the NFL, Koch Industries and JPMorgan Chase. West Front’s clients include Comcast, Microsoft and Walgreens. Both firms represent Boeing, T-Mobile, the Consumer Technology Association and RTX.
The firms will combine under one brand — S-3 — and John Scofield, a founder of S-3, will serve as the combined firms’ managing partner. West Front’s Ashley Davis and the rest of their team are joining S-3.
S-3’s roots are in the Appropriations Committee. Scofield worked on the panel in the House. But the center of gravity on the Hill has shifted to the leadership, and the combined firm is hoping to corner that space.
The new firm will have a lot of leadership firepower. Matt Bravo, a partner at S-3, was a top aide to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, as was Marty Reiser. S-3’s Mike Ference worked for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. West Front’s Shimmy Stein was also an aide to Cantor.
S-3 is also bipartisan. It employs Michael Long, who worked for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Kevin Casey, who was policy director to former House Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)
In merging with West Front, S-3 will now have Malloy McDaniel, who worked in the leadership for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Kristi Remington, who served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Bush administration.
S-3 also has branched out to digital communications and management, something West Front doesn’t currently have. That practice, led by Hastie Afkhami, speaks to “staff and members in the digital space,” Scofield said.
“With Ashley and her team coming on, they have access to that sort of full flight of services,” Scofield said.
