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Jeremy Kudon

Partner

New York

Jeremy helps organizations "make order out of chaos" of the 50 state legislatures and designs, executes, and coordinates every aspect of "bet the company" national legislative/lobbying campaigns. In the words of one senior executive, "Jeremy and his team are the apex predators of state government affairs practices. You don't just want him on your side when you need to pass, kill, or shape a bill in one or more state legislatures. You HAVE to have Jeremy and his team on your side."

No other group in the United States - whether at a law firm, public affairs firm, or inside the Beltway - can match Jeremy and Orrick's record of success in the state legislatures. Unlike others, who specialize in tracking bills, identifying contract lobbyists (and taking a % of their fee), or developing expensive media and PR campaigns, Jeremy and his team don't specialize in any one area of state government affairs; they specialize in EVERYTHING. They learn your business, work with you on your objectives--both overall and in the state legislatures, identify threats/opportunities, develop a budget, hire contract lobbyists, draft legislation, prepare advocacy pieces, attend legislative conferences, travel to state capitols and educate members about your issue, testify before committees, develop and implement grassroots and PR campaigns, coordinate roll calls, and coordinate every aspect of both the state and overall campaign to add the most possible value to your business.

Just listen to what the media and our clients have to say – The New York Times profiled our efforts in passing online sports betting and daily fantasy sports legislation in an extensive above-the-fold report and in an episode of their podcast, “The Daily.” And from an interview with TechCruch, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said Jeremy and Orrick’s Public Policy team have “helped us go from a tech company that didn’t know a whole lot about legislative affairs and regulation to really being sophisticated there” and praised that “For anyone who’s in a disruptive industry and might be regulated, they really did a fantastic job.”

  • Some examples of Jeremy's experience and record of success include:

    • Online Sports Betting. Jeremy and Orrick have played a crucial role in legalizing online sports betting in 18 states (as of September 2022) on behalf of clients FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Bally's, and BetFanatics. Working with the companies' government affairs teams, Orrick has helped negotiate/draft model legislation, hired and supervised 75 contract lobbyists, made over 200 trips to state capitols, testified before dozens of committees, designed grassroots campaigns that has generated tens of thousands of customer emails to their state representatives, and worked with stakeholders to bring legal sports betting to nearly 50% of the United States population.
    • Professional Sports Leagues & Sports Betting: From January 2017 through December 2021, Jeremy and Orrick coordinated a multi-state legislative campaign on behalf of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and PGA Tour to ensure that online sports betting bills included provisions that protected league integrity and required operators to use official league data to set and settle in-game wagers. Over a four year period, Jeremy and his team helped the leagues pass legislation that included these provisions in multiple states, including Illinois, Michigan, New York, Arizona, Tennessee, and Massachusetts.
    • Communication Tax Reform and Right of Way Fee Legislation:For the past 14 years, Jeremy has overseen a multi-state legislative campaign on behalf of DISH and DIRECTV to defeat anti-competitive satellite TV and over-the-top TV taxes. The team’s record is nothing short of spectacular. Since 2009, Orrick has helped the satellite TV industry defeat over 100 bills in 40 states, which has translated into billions of dollars of savings. More recently, Orrick has mounted an affirmative campaign to clarify state laws and confirm that municipalities cannot charge streaming operators a fee to use their rights of way. In 2022, alone, Orrick passed clarification bills in Georgia, Louisiana, and Arizona.
    • Clean Energy Reform. Jeremy and his team have coordinated a multi-state campaign on behalf of a national energy client to pass or shape legislation that promote clean energy and ensure that states are able to keep the lights, air conditioning, and heat on.
    • Car Sharing Legislation. In 2019, Jeremy and his team designed and coordinated a nearly 50 state lobbying campaign on behalf of Getaround to defeat or amend an onslaught of anti-competitive bills that posed an existential threat to this new and innovative industry. Orrick--together with other industry stakeholders--helped defeat or favorably amend bills in 25 states over a 10 month period.
    • Ocular Telehealth. Over a 3 year period (2016 -18) Orrick coordinated a multi-state legislative campaign on behalf of Warby Parker and Simple Health to protect against anti-competitive ocular telehealth legislation.
    • Daily Fantasy Sports. In the fall of 2015, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, FanDuel and DraftKings faced an existential threat from state legislatures and Attorneys General. Jeremy and his team built, implemented and ran a 50-state legislative and regulatory campaign that included on the ground lobbying, public relations support, and grassroots and grasstops activation. As a result of Jeremy and Orrick’s work, 20 state legislatures, including New York where Attorney General Schneiderman issued a cease and desist to the companies, have passed legislation clarifying that daily fantasy sports are legal, creating regulatory oversight and introducing common sense consumer protections.
    • Alcohol Delivery Legislation. Jeremy and his team developed and implemented a multi-state legislative campaign on behalf of Drizly to pass or shape bills that would potentially regulate or, in some instances, prohibit third party alcohol delivery.

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