By the standards of Washington nonprofits, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, founded in 1998, is in its adolescence. Yet under its president, Lisa Rickard, it already gives the nation’s businesses a strong voice in how the law develops.

Rickard’s approach is comprehensive, pushing on issues as diverse as third-party litigation financing, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the plaintiffs’ bar’s ties to state attorneys general.