Ken Duberstein, a former White House chief of staff who helped resuscitate Ronald Reagan’s presidency and went on to become a successful lobbyist whose counsel was sought by leaders of both parties, died March 2 in Washington. He was 77.

Mr. Duberstein had joined the Reagan White House in 1981 as the president’s liaison to the House of Representatives, where he helped push through an extensive tax cut by getting conservative Democrats, known as blue dogs, to break with their party. His dogged ways earned him a nickname from Senator Howard Baker Jr., then the majority leader: Duberdog.

He later left the White House to work as a lobbyist, returned in 1987 to rescue the Reagan presidency, which was floundering in part because of public backlash over the Iran-contra scandal to use profits from the sale of weapons to Iran to supply Nicaraguan rebels. Reagan’s “mea culpa” speech, at the behest of Mr. Duberstein, helped turn the presidency around. In 1988, he was named chief of staff.

He was a trustee for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, and served on the boards of the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations.