The Hill News

Outgoing Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said Tuesday that he'll join the Missouri-based law firm Thomson Coburn after leaving office.

Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he hoped to work on areas of expertise, but said that he wouldn't be doing any lobbying of his former colleagues.

"I joined this lawfirm to be a lawyer, not to be a lobbyist," Bond said at a press conference discussing his new job. "I am forbidden to have any official meetings with members of Congress for two years. It's rather draconian but I'm certaijnly going to abide by that. I don't plan on lobbying for Congress."

Bond is not sure what specific projects he will be working on yet but he says they will be related to his major areas of expertise: cyber policy, foreign intelligence surveillance act, biotechnology, international trade.

Thomas Minogue, Thomson Coburn's chairman who accompanied Bond at the announcement, also added that Bon! d will be working on national transportation projects for the law firm.

As a partner for Thomson Coburn, Bond will be consulting out of the firm's Washington office in areas which he has some expertise like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and biotechnology.

"I'm not a litigator. I'm not going to be spending time for trial. I have done appellant arguments but I think my best areas will be areas where I have expertise, cyber area, foreign intelligence surveillance act, biotechnology, international trade.
He cautioned at the announcement that he will not be litigating and, because he served in the senate, he is barred from meeting with congress members for two years. 

At the press conference, Bond said the major problems facing the country are economic and security related. He was optimistic about what the new congress could achieve.

"I believe the new house of representatives will put the country right on track,"! Bond said. "We need to stop overspending, taxing, and regulat! ing. I h ope there will be bipartisan efforts to reform entitlement programs and I think that can only be done by bipartisan efforts."

Bond criticized the last congress for having too little bipartisan cooperation.
"We saw too little of that in the last session," Bond explained. The only thing we got that was bipartisan was the intel authorization bill that Diane Feinstein and I passed with unanimous bipartisanship."