Jim Riley

Jim Riley is the Chief Counsel and Senior Vice President, Government Affairs for the National Waste & Recycling Association. In this capacity, Jim serves as the top in-house legal counsel for the Association and oversees the staff of federal and state lobbyists for the Association representing the $100 billion per year private sector waste and recycling industry. In 2019, he was named to The Hill‘s list of top lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for leading the successful effort to obtain a rare Hours of Service exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration solely for members of NWRA resulting in a savings to them in excess of $100 million over two years. He is also responsible for starting the Association’s political action committee, NWRA PAC, and member grassroots advocacy efforts.

Jim comes to NWRA from the aggregates industry where he was a strong advocate for them in Washington, growing both their industry’s political action committee (PAC) into one of the top federally registered trade association PACs and their grassroots efforts into an award-winning program. Prior to this, he was senior analyst for civil justice reform and insurance with Citizens for a Sound Economy and deputy general counsel for a major presidential campaign.

In addition to being a registered lobbyist, Jim is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, New York and Massachusetts as well as before the United States Supreme Court. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and received his law degree from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.

A native of Upstate New York, Jim and his wife Julia reside in Virginia with their two children.