Emanuel ("Manny") Rouvelas engages in a wide-ranging federal counseling and lobbying practice. He acts as lead counsel advising and representing Fortune 500 companies and trade associations in the transportation, telecommunications, high technology, hospitality, and manufacturing industries regarding their Washington, D.C. activities and strategies.  He has also served as lead government affairs counsel for major companies in transnational acquisitions, mergers, and corporate reorganizations.  He is a recognized authority in ocean shipping law and for three decades has traveled globally to advise the CEOs of many of the world's leading shipping companies.  Over the years, his practice has taken him to more than thirty countries, and he often works with the executive branch, Congress, foreign embassies, and governments on international trade and transport matters. He founded the Washington, D.C. office of Preston Gates and guided its growth to more than 140 partners and employees at the time it was merged into K&L Gates on January 1, 2007.

Manny has served as an advisor to two U.S. presidential transitions, a bipartisan Congressional Caucus, an executive branch reorganization, several senators and congressmen, and many political campaigns. He is consistently ranked as one of the country's top lawyer/lobbyists. In 2008, he was recognized by Legal Times as a "legal visionary" and one of the "greatest Washington lawyers of the past 30 years" who helped turn Washington, D.C.'s legal and lobbying community into an international powerhouse. In each year from 2005-2007 and 2009, he was named one of the 50 "Top Lobbyists" (out of 12,000) by The Hill newspaper based on a survey of Members of Congress and staff. He also received the Propeller Club's Bentley Lifetime Maritime Achievement Award. Prior to joining K&L Gates, he was counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce and chief counsel to its Merchant Marine and Foreign Commerce Subcommittees.

Manny has long been committed to the importance of strong ethical governance in both the public and private sectors and has taught, lectured and counseled clients on governance issues.  He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1996 and the Program on Corporate Governance for Directors at Stanford Business School in 2006.  He has twenty years experience serving on the boards of directors of three U.S. public companies and an additional twenty years of service on the boards of directors of nonprofit charitable organizations.  He currently is a Director of American Commercial lines, one of the country's largest diversified marine transportation companies and chairman of its Nominating and Governance Committee.  In the nonprofit area, he is a Regent of the American Architectural Foundation, a Director of the American Friends of the New Acropolis Museum; a Director of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the largest regional network of business and nonprofit leaders, and served nine years as Trustee and Vice-Chairman of the American College of Greece in Athens.