Lobbyists in New York soon could have their own professional association that would set high ethical standards for members and push for lobbying changes in government.

A founder of the Public Advocacy Group, Chad Marlow, a relative newcomer to lobbying, is proposing to start a New York Sate Ethical Lobbyists Association to “represent the best elements of our industry, to improve our public image, and to promote public laws that hold each of us to the highest ethical and professional standards,” he wrote in a letter he is sending to New York lobbyists today.

Mr. Marlow said he felt compelled to start an association after learning about a recent meeting during which several lobbyists reportedly discussed hiring a metalobbyist to resist lobbying rule changes both at City Hall and in Albany.

Mr. Marlow is opposed to such an organization, and said any such group would comprise “the minority of lobbyists who take advantage of the gap between what is legal and what is ethical in the lobbying profession.”

Lobbyists who practice in an open, transparent way and present fair data to officials “don’t like the fact that there are people in our profession who use money and relationships to unduly influence the process,” he said.

A political consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, who attended the meeting at Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue that was first reported by Crain’s earlier this month, said the 15 to 20 lobbyists in attendance did not discuss pushing back lobbying changes. “These were friends concerned about the industry,” he said.

A president of Government Affairs Professionals of New York, a fraternal organization for lobbyists, Robert Bishop, who also attended the meeting, said the industry has a public relations problem.

Mr. Bishop said his colleagues had talked “about whether this is a passing climate we have to weather, or whether we should be doing something affirmatively about it.” He said he doesn’t think Mr. Marlow’s proposed association is necessary.

“It makes for good press to suggest that we need this new revamping of ethical consideration, but I’m not sure it’s a problem that actually exists,” Mr. Bishop said. “I don’t think that in this town there is a low caliber of ethics among lobbyists.”

Mr. Marlow said he wants lobbyists to present information to government officials much in the same way a lawyer argues a case before a judge. He wants to close legal loopholes, such as a law that allows legislative employees to begin lobbying immediately following the end of a session of the Legislature.

A deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, Suzanne Novak, said she welcomes the creation of a lobbyist association seeking to set higher ethical standards, but noted that lobbying laws still need to be strengthened.

“There was some ethics reform here in New York, and that was a good first step; however, there is a long way to go,” she said. “You want the legislators’ ears to be open to everyone’s voices.”