Lobbying for change: Katrell Lewis
Katrell Lewis, principal in the Public Strategies subsidiary of the Cozen O’Connor law firm, is a highly regarded public policy strategist and lobbyist who advocates on behalf of the firm’s clients in Albany and New York. The law firm was established in 1970 and broadly represents global corporations; its Public Strategies subsidiary works to build local and national government relations, provide policy analysis, advocate for legislation, and secure funding for programs in multiple areas.
“A lobbyist is essentially someone who is working with an organization to get the resources that they need for their constituency. Sometimes that’s corporate, sometimes that’s nonprofit, and sometimes that’s trade organizations,” said Lewis. “It is someone that’s your eyes, your ears, and your feet on the ground to every level of government you need to talk to to get the resources you need.”
Lewis’s biggest clients have included the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Harlem YMCA, and Brooklyn United Marching Band. He was a government relations fellow with the William J. Clinton Foundation (Clinton Global Initiative). Most recently, Lewis served as vice president of government and community partnerships at Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County. He joined Cozen in 2023.
A Brooklyn native, Lewis grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the 1990s, the youngest of three raised by a single working mother. He attended public schools in Bed-Stuy throughout his adolescent years and always had an interest in politics. He was most directly inspired by former President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in 2004. Obama, at the time, was a state senator from Illinois and keynote speaker at the convention.
“He talked about [being] a young kid with a funny name and that really connected with me,” Lewis said. “At that time, I would’ve been 13, going into high school with a funny name. He talked about a Black kid who talks ‘white.’ Everything he was saying I connected with and since then, I was interested in politics and I knew I wanted to be in politics. I just didn’t know what that meant.”
Lewis earned his M.P.A. at the City University of New York (CUNY) Baruch College Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, and his B.A. in political science at the CUNY College of Staten Island. He said that attending school in a borough that was predominantly white and Republican was a real departure from his upbringing. While in college, he was vice chair of the CUNY CIS Association, a nonprofit affiliated with the school.
“I’d say generally that in most of the rooms I’m in, I am the only Black man, but that also allows me to talk about issues that are affecting Black communities from my client side, my team, and then the State Legislature as well,” Lewis said about his experience.During his tenure at Habitat for Humanity, Lewis helped to create hundreds of affordable homeownership units and affordable LGBTQ senior housing, advanced bipartisan state legislation to reform the state’s affordable homeownership program, and advocated for the addition of $400 million in affordable homeownership funding for the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. In recognition of his leadership, Crain’s New York Business honored Lewis with their annual 40 under 40 recognition in 2022.
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