The top lobbyist for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is leaving next month to join a business consulting firm in Pasadena.

Sam Garrison, vice president of public policy for the chamber for the last five years, will be joining High Lantern Group, a two-year-old firm that provides strategic advice and communication services for companies. He will start in mid-May, right after the chamber’s annual lobbying trip to Washington D.C.

Rob Gluck, a founding principal at High Lantern and managing director of the Los Angeles area office, said hiring Garrison will help the company expand.

Garrison, 34, said he was attracted to High Lantern’s approach to strategic business consulting.

“High Lantern’s focus and expertise is a natural extension of my work at the chamber: helping to frame the debate on issues critical to business growth here in Southern California,” Garrison said.

Garrison was named to the chamber’s top lobbying post in 2006 after Brendan Huffman left to become chief executive of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. Garrison helped boost the chamber’s profile at Los Angeles City Hall. He also helped position the group as a moderate organization that sometimes differed with other chambers on environmental and tax issues.