Code of Ethics

National Association of State Lobbyists:

Statement of Lobbying Principles

The National Association of State Lobbyists (NASL) is a nonprofit association founded to further the understanding, awareness and standards of the lobbyists, government affairs professionals and advocates who focus on the state legislative, regulatory or administrative level.

The Association is comprised of individuals—men and women—who have strong track records and experience in lobbying, government affairs or advocacy at the state level, selected by their peers because of their leadership, competence and sense of responsibility as a professional and as a representative of our chosen profession.  While we are all “government affairs professionals,” we are all proud of our service as “lobbyists” and proud to use the title.

Founded in 2003, its purposes are to foster the best practices of lobbying and representing clients and interests at the state level; increase the general awareness and understanding of this sector of the lobbying profession; promote the highest standards of integrity, trustworthiness and credibility in state-based advocacy; and work within our profession and with others to better the practices of lobbying and advocacy.

As independent contract lobbyists who represent various clients, we place a high value on our trustworthiness and credibility—not only for our ability to keep existing clients and obtain new ones, but more important, for our ability to maintain our relationships and reputation based on trust, integrity, accuracy and success.  As such, the principles we share are core to our personal and professional commitment to our clients, others we interact with and the system we participate in.

In forming our association, it became clear very quickly that these principles were an even stronger bond bringing us together as the basis for our common association.  As peers, the recognition that these values were a high priority in our professional lives led us to distill them as a common set of principles important to us all and our association.

Even more so, we believe these are critically important to our profession and the legislative and government processes we participate in.  The members of the National Association of State Lobbyists believe that it is the responsibility of each government affairs professional or lobbyist to strive to conduct their activities with the highest standards of ethical behavior in accordance with the following Lobbying Principles.