Eager to get a leg up on the competition, hedge funds are paying lobbyists in Washington, D.C., anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 a month to share any useful information and insights. The Wall Street Journal reports that many a lobbing firm in the nation’s capital is bulking up their ranks to meet the demands of hedge funds, which are looking to lobbyists not to influence policy – their traditional territory – but to share tips. That may be OK, as long as the stuff lobbyists share doesn’t cross the line into insider-trading-type info, something the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating. In general, The WSJ notes, there is nothing wrong legally or ethically for lobbyists to talk about non-public information on how Congress works, even if that disclosure could have an impact on stock prices. It gets murkier on both scores if those sharing the information directly profit from it. This cottage industry could be short-lived, however, if the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress follows through on its desire to ramp up lobbyist disclosure of their business to include naming all their political-intelligence clients. Currently, lobbyists are required to disclose only those clients attempting to influence Congress. Complicating matters, says The WSJ, is that there is a growing number of clients that are trying to do both – influence the government via lobbying and cash in on information they get from the lobbyist, who often possess a wealth of HF-useful knowledge just from their regular exchanges with colleagues. The demand by hedge funds -- as well as other deep-pocketed folks, such as private equity funds, investment banks and just plain wealthy people-- has caused a growth spurt in intelligence practices. "There are a lot of savvy investors who have realized that there is a lot of money to be made from what Congress does," Elliott Portnoy of the Chicago-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, which has tripled its intelligence staff and clients in just the past two years. Given the thin line between what’s kosher and what’s not, hedge funds are urged to proceed with caution. "If you’re worried it might be inside information," Clint Carlson of Dallas-based Carlson Capital said in a WSJ interview, "it’s best not to use if, even if it is legal."