Practice Areas

Over the last twenty-five years in the professional practice of government affairs, we have built a reputation for success in the most difficult of legislative contests.

  • Fred Allen and Associates has been the lead lobbyist for Reynolds American Tobacco for 23 years. Six of those years saw overwhelming efforts to raise our state’s tax on cigarettes. Despite those efforts, we have succeeded in keeping South Carolina’s cigarette tax the 7th lowest in the nation.
  • In the 1990s, we represented Chem-Nuclear Systems, the operator of a low level radioactive waste landfill in S.C.  Through bitter contests we were able to keep the site open to the country; providing safe disposal for hospitals and utilities and protecting jobs in Barnwell County.
  • In 2001 we led a lobbying team which created, for the first time, a state Conservation Bank which provided for the preservation of open land through state funded purchases of conservation easements.
  • In a bitter two year fight, against city and county government, Fred Allen & Associates led the lobbying team which succeeded in obtaining just compensation for the removal of billboards by action of local governments. This measure required government to pay fair market value for outdoor advertising signs they wished to remove. The measure was opposed by nearly every newspaper in South Carolina.



Within the overall practice of government affairs, we have built deeper experience on specific issues and believe that we can best represent these industries and causes. Our concentrations include:

Tax Policy, Finance and Local Government

It has been our policy for the twenty-five years of our involvement in S.C. government and public affairs to seek primarily to represent the interests of taxpayers rather than tax users.

Reynolds American Tobacco

For the past 23 years we have succeeded, often under intense competition, to keep South Carolina’s tobacco excise tax from being increased. It is still among the lowest in the U.S. today.

Outdoor Advertising Association of South Carolina

In a hard fought, two year battle, we led a team of lobbyists who succeeded – over the objections of local governments and most newspapers – in passing legislation requiring local governments to pay fair market value for billboards which were removed by action of government.

Southern Wine & Spirits

Working for the nation’s premier wholesaler of spirits and wine, we have been involved in all phases of alcohol regulation and taxing policy since 2004.

American Resort Development Association

We have succeeded in protecting the timeshare industry from intrusive taxing initiatives by local government and competing hospitality interests.

Related Clients

  • The Travelers
  • South Carolina Coin Operators Association
  • National Association of Settlement Purchasers
  • Manufactured Housing Institute
  • Public Financial Management
  • Associated Financial Group
  • Homebuilders Association of South Carolina

Utilities, Energy & Waste

BellSouth/AT&T

We have represented BellSouth and now the combined company of AT&T for 21 years. Our primary initiatives have been in the area of deregulation – bringing more competition to the marketplace and thereby providing cheaper service to customers and operating benefits to the company.

South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee-Cooper)

As lobbyists and consultants to Santee-Cooper, the state owned utility; we have worked on a wide variety of electric power issues.

Chem-Nuclear Systems

We were immersed in the politics and policy of waste disposal on behalf of Chem-Nuclear for more than ten years. The company operated a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Barnwell County and keeping the site open and operating productively was a hard-fought contest every session.

Related Clients:

  • Palmetto Utilities
  • Westinghouse Savannah River Company

 

 

Economic Development

Working on behalf of a variety of corporate clients including BellSouth and BMW, it has been our privilege to be a substantial part of the teams which succeeded in the passage of some of our state’s milestone economic development legislation:

  • Economic Development Bonds Act- 2002
  • Allowed the state to issue up to $250 million in bonds to help attract large investment prospects to South Carolina
  • Research Infrastructure Bonds Act- 2003-2004
  • Authorized the issuance of $220 million in state debt to finance matching private investment in the construction of research infrastructure at the state’s research universities
  • Endowed Chairs 2002
  • For the first time, S.C. created a fund to match private donations used by the research universities to attract leading experts to the state.  Established endowed chairs in targeted disciplines which would lead to the creation of new private enterprise in commercially viable  research areas.
  • Development Agreement Act-1993
  • Working alone on behalf of the Guggenheim Foundation and The Daniel Island Company, Allen was able to cause the passage of South Carolina’s first legislation authorizing development agreements which allowed developers and local governments to bind zoning for specific periods in exchange for public benefits provided by the developers. This law allowed the development of the new town of Daniel Island outside Charleston, a signature planned community of mixed residential and commercial uses.

Initiatives for Public Benefit

Land Legacy Initiative

Working on behalf of The Nature Conservancy with a consortium of business and conservation interests, we succeeded in establishing the state’s first Conservation Bank, which preserves open land through the purchase of conservation easements.

South Carolina Archives and History Center

As one of the thirteen original colonies, South Carolina is a primary research destination for historians and family researchers. We were instrumental in securing funding for the $6 million construction of the new Archives and History Center.

Health Care Related Clients

    • Medical University of South Carolina
    • Hoffman LaRoche Pharmaceuticals
    • Providence Hospital
    • South Carolina Medical Association
    • National Wholesale Druggists Association


Additional Business Related Clients

  • The John Deere Company
  • The Equipment Manufacturers Association
  • Marconi Communications
  • URS/Greiner Engineering