Issues Management & Public Affairs.
Sustained counsel on the policy fights, regulatory reviews, and reputational issues that outlive any single news cycle. Coalition building, congressional and regulatory engagement, CFIUS, sanctions and tariffs, sector reform, and the public affairs work that decides whether a company can operate, expand, or close a deal.
Issues management is the long game. It is rarely a single regulator, a single bill, or a single news cycle. It is the work of positioning an organization with the audiences that will determine whether it gets a license, wins an approval, survives an investigation, or reshapes a rule, and of staying credible across the years of scrutiny and shifting political terrain that follow. Public affairs sits inside that frame: the regulatory, legislative, and stakeholder counsel that turns a policy environment into a policy outcome.
KARV has advised multinationals, trade associations, sovereign entities, and industry coalitions through CFIUS reviews, Federal Reserve licensing, congressional hearings, state utility and transportation decisions, sanctions and tariff regimes, and the coordinated advocacy campaigns that sit behind them. The work is strategic communications in the service of policy outcomes, not lobbying in a different suit.
Our advisors bring former senior roles in the US government, experience on Capitol Hill, and decades of counsel across industries that live or die by regulatory decisions. We work alongside outside counsel and government affairs teams to build the narrative, stakeholder alignment, and media environment that makes policy outcomes possible.
Dimensions of Issues Management & Public Affairs.
Regulatory Advocacy & Engagement
Strategic communications for clients in front of federal agencies, state regulators, and multilateral bodies. We help organizations explain their position, build the third-party validation that matters, and move through licensing, rulemaking, and enforcement processes with clarity.
Legislative & Congressional Strategy
Communications counsel for hearings, markups, and coalitions on the Hill. Message development, witness preparation, and the earned media strategy that creates room for legislative and oversight outcomes, whether the client is defending or pressing for change.
Coalition Building & Stakeholder Campaigns
Third-party mobilization for trade associations, industry groups, and issue coalitions. We identify credible validators, structure their public voice, and sequence activity across media, policy forums, and grassroots channels to shift the environment around a decision.
CFIUS & Cross-Border Review
Communications support for transactions under review by CFIUS and other national-security and foreign-investment regulators. Counsel on when to speak publicly, when to hold, and how to manage media, political, and stakeholder reactions through a sensitive approval process.
Long-Horizon Issues Counsel
Sustained counsel on policy fights that outlive any single news cycle: tariffs, sanctions, investigations, industry reforms, and regulatory standards. Strategy for organizations that need to stay credible across years of scrutiny and shifting political terrain.
Policy Communications & Thought Leadership
Op-eds, briefings, commissioned research, and executive platforms designed to shape the policy conversation rather than chase it. Positioning leaders as credible voices with regulators, legislators, and the media who cover them.
Where our Issues Management & Public Affairs work runs deepest.
Public affairs work cuts across industries and jurisdictions. Four arenas draw on particular depth built up across many assignments, with a representative engagement described for each.
KARV advises financial institutions, energy companies, and multinational corporations through federal licensing, approvals, and enforcement matters. We work alongside outside counsel to build the media and stakeholder environment around the substantive regulatory case.
Branch licensing for a major international bank
KARV advised a leading international bank through its application for Federal Reserve approval to open a US branch. We developed the communications strategy surrounding the application, managed media inquiries through a sensitive review period, and coordinated third-party stakeholder engagement to support the bank’s case with regulators and press alike.
- Capabilities
- Regulatory communications, media strategy, stakeholder coordination
- Outcome
- Approval secured; licensing and market entry proceeded without adverse coverage.
KARV has counseled acquirers, targets, and sovereign investors through complex CFIUS and foreign-investment reviews, where a single headline can shift the politics of an approval. The work blends discretion with the ability to move quickly when the public conversation requires a response.
High-profile CFIUS review of a cross-border transaction
KARV served as communications counsel to a foreign investor on a high-profile CFIUS review that attracted sustained political and media attention. We shaped the public narrative around the transaction, prepared principals for press and congressional scrutiny, and managed coordinated engagement with trade, business, and general-interest reporters throughout the review.
- Capabilities
- CFIUS communications, principal preparation, media strategy
- Outcome
- Transaction closed following approval; client narrative held through a politically charged review.
KARV advises trade associations, industry coalitions, and national federations on the communications work required to reshape regulation, defend a sector, or position an industry for a new era. We bring structure, cadence, and message discipline to efforts that often involve dozens of member organizations.
Rebuilding international confidence in a national banking sector
KARV served as communications counsel to a national banking association through a post-crisis reform period that drew sustained scrutiny from international media and regulators. We shaped a coordinated narrative across member institutions, placed senior leaders in targeted international outlets, and managed ongoing engagement with trade and policy press through multiple years of reform.
- Capabilities
- Coalition communications, international media, reform narrative
- Outcome
- International perception of the sector materially repositioned across multi-year engagement.
Not every public affairs fight is in Washington. State utility commissions, transit authorities, city councils, and attorneys general hand down decisions that can define a business. KARV has counseled clients through state-level approvals, franchise negotiations, and infrastructure decisions in jurisdictions across the country.
Communications strategy for a major US transit infrastructure initiative
KARV supported a wireless infrastructure partner in its multi-year program to bring mobile connectivity to a major US subway system. We managed announcements across phased station rollouts, positioned the initiative with riders, elected officials, and transportation reporters, and helped translate a complex public-private partnership into accessible public narrative.
- Capabilities
- Infrastructure communications, public-private partnership narrative, stakeholder outreach
- Outcome
- Rollout completed with sustained positive coverage and public support across a multi-year program.
Counsel grounded in sustained work on CFIUS reviews, federal licensing, sanctions and tariffs, coalition reform, and the policy fights that outlive any single news cycle.
FEDERAL · STATE · CROSS-BORDER
Related insights.
Alana Abramson and Tehya Frank Named to PRNews Top Women in PR 2026
PRNews honors two of KARV’s senior leaders in its 2026 Top Women in PR Awards, recognizing standout women shaping communications across business, policy, and media.
‘Huge Win for Iran if Holds Strait’: Handjani
Amir Handjani joins Bloomberg Television to discuss the Strait of Hormuz and the stakes for global energy markets.
The War Will End With a Hormuz Toll Booth
Iran will likely control the waterway. The question is whether diplomats find a way of making that workable.