Drew Wilson
Multi-state firm McGuireWoods Consulting showed an estimated $235,000 in lobbying compensation in its first quarterly since acquiring Advantage Consulting Team.
Though McGuireWoods is the new kid on the block, at least in the Sunshine State, the members of its Florida lobbying corps are anything but. Rhett O’Doski, Ryder Rudd and Sean Stafford have more than six decades of combined government relations experience and spent the decade prior to the acquisition working under the Advantage Consulting Team banner.
Based on median figures, the trio showed $190,000 in earnings on its legislative report and another $45,000 on its executive report, though that tally could have topped $300,000 if their 28 principals topped out in their reported pay ranges.
McGuireWoods top client overall was FCCI Insurance Group, which cut a check in the ballpark of $35,000 for lobbying help during the 2018 Legislative Session. The commercial property and casualty insurer kicked in up to $10,000 more to influence the Governor and the Cabinet.
Following FCCI on the legislative report were environmental group The Nature Conservancy and health insurer United Healthcare Services, each of which paid between $20,000 and $30,000 on the legislative side and up to $10,000 more on the for executive branch lobbying.
Among the half-dozen clients paying between $10,000 and $20,000 to ply the legislature was Florida Poly, the state’s newest public university which only recently celebrated the graduation of its inaugural class. The STEM-focused uni also made the executive branch client sheet, and like every other paying principal on that report, was marked down in the $1 to $10,000 range.
The healthy Q1 haul is consistent with the numbers O’Doski, Rudd and Stafford pulled in as ACT, which reported between $150,000 and $350,000 in total lobbying pay for the fourth quarter of 2017.
