Philip S. Corwin, director and counsel for retail banking and operations at the American Bankers Association, will join a private lobbying firm in January. He starts his new job with a nice golden parachute from the ABA -a multiyear contract to consult on bankruptcy and insurance issues.
He joins Federal Legislative Associates in Washington after 10 years at the ABA.
Mr. Corwin, 45, said he has toyed with the idea of private practice for some time. With the passage of bankruptcy reform legislation in 1994, one of his pet projects, and the ABA contract, the time was right, he said.
His soon-to-be-former boss, ABA chief lobbyist Edward L. Yingling, credited Mr. Corwin for "tireless work" on bankruptcy reform, and on the ABA's continuing campaign for bank insurance powers. "We look forward to an ongoing relationship," Mr. Yingling said.
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Philip Gasteyer, general counsel at America's Community Bankers, is taking early retirement at the end of the week and moving to Corrales, N.M., where his wife has a pottery studio.
His job will be taken by C. Dawn Causey, an Office of Thrift Supervision veteran who is now the thrift trade group's regulatory counsel. Her post, in turn, will go to Charlotte M. Bahin, now a regulatory specialist with the organization.
Mr. Gasteyer, 57, has been working for the ACB and its predecessors - Savings and Community Bankers of America, the U.S. League of Savings Institutions, and the U.S. League of Savings and Loan Associations - since 1970. At first he wrote newsletters and press releases for the trade group by day and attended law school at Catholic University of America by night. After getting his law degree, he moved into the lobbying side of the organization.
He became its chief lobbyist in 1982, then was head of the Washington office of the Chicago-based U.S. League from 1984 to 1989. Those happened to be the years when the savings and loan industry was collapsing and the U.S. League was lobbying for regulatory and legislative changes that, many critics contend, made the thrift meltdown much worse than it had to be.
But Mr. Gasteyer contends that there wasn't much the U.S. League could have done to stem the tide of thrift failures, and that the group's power in Washington was exaggerated. "We had less money at our disposal than a single brokerage house, like Bear Stearns, was able to collect from its partners at a Christmas party," he said.
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Capitol Hill staffers mourned as the budget stalemate ruined their holiday break. But working for Congress beats, say, working for a law firm. At least that's the thinking of Wilke Green, a former counsel to the Senate Banking Committee.
Mr. Green, 36, has returned to Congress as an aide to Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., and will tackle banking, budget, tax, and foreign affairs legislation.
From 1991 until 1993 he was counsel to the Senate banking panel's consumer and regulatory affairs subcommittee, then under the chairmanship of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon. The subcommittee's duties included oversight of the savings and loan cleanup and creating the Resolution Trust Corp.
After leaving Capitol Hill, Mr. Green joined the Washington law office of Douglas R. Stevens, specializing in commercial litigation.
Mr. Green decided to return to politics after discovering that private practice was "highly overrated." Still, Mr. Green will soon be job hunting again. Sen. Johnston will retire when his term expires in 1997.
