Staff Reports
Metz Husband & Daughton saw an increase in lobbying revenues last year, closing out 2019 with $4.6 million in lobbying fees.
The figure is a six-figure boost compared to 2018, which saw the firm score $4.4 million in lobbying pay.
Metz Husband & Daughton handed a total of 144 lobbying contracts last year. Of those, 73 sought legislative lobbying work from MHD. Those clients accounted for an estimated $3.25 million in revenue for the firm. The balance retained MHD for executive lobbying. Those clients made up $1.4 million of the firm’s overall haul.
Lobbying firms report their pay in ranges covering $10,000 increments. Florida Politics uses the middle number of each range to estimate total revenue.
Amscot Financial was Metz Husband & Daughton’s top client on the lobbying side of the ledger. The Tampa-based consumer financial services company paid Metz an estimated median $204,000 for legislative lobbying services in 2019.
No other client came within striking distance of Amscot in terms of fees paid.
Metz Husband & Daughton’s second-most lucrative legislative client was The Florida Bar. The third-largest legal bar organization in the United States paid Metz an estimated $120,000 in fees last year.
Another five clients paid Metz $100,000 each for legislative lobbying work, including Siemens Corp. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
Another 22 followed at the $60,000 level. MHD’s portfolio of clients was diverse, with no single industry dominating the firm’s balance sheet.
Metz Husband & Daughton repped some notable clients in 2019, among them General Motors, eBay, medicinal marijuana company Curaleaf Florida, AT&T, Microsoft and Mayo Clinic.
On the executive lobbying list, three organizations paid an estimated $60,000 apiece. Bluebird Bio along with Carr Riggs & Ingram and Curaleaf Florida each contracted with the firm at that level.
Bluebird of Cambridge, Mass., is a biotechnology company focused on gene therapy. Carr Riggs & Ingram is an accounting firm headquartered in Enterprise, Ala.
Metz Husband & Daughton employed eight lobbyists in 2109. The team: Jim Daughton, Douglas Bell, Patricia Greene, Warren Husband, Alli Liby-Schoonover, Aimee Diaz Lyon, Andy Palmer and Pierce Schuessler.
Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a Feb. 14 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. Compensation reports for the first quarter of 2020 are due to the state in mid-April.
