Drew Wilson
The seven-person team at Smith Bryan & Myers netted an estimated $1.35 million during the second quarter, beating their total for the first three months of the year.
Matt Bryan, David Daniel, Thomas Griffin, Jeff Hartley, Lisa Hurley, Jim Naff and Teye Reeves pulled in $795,000 of the quarterly haul in the Legislature.
Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of firms’ per-client ranges on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments. Compensation reports also include firm-level ranges, giving outsiders a rough idea of their minimum and maximum earnings.
SBM’s legislative compensation report listed 86 contracts, with Duke Energy holding the top spot at the $35,000 level. The firm also handled three $25,000 clients — The Family Law Section of the Florida Bar, the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association and Intuition LLC.
The client roster spanned several industries. Health care interests include Corizon, Employer Direct Healthcare and the Florida Hospital Association. The College Board and the University of Florida Foundation anchored SBM’s education lineup.
SBM also handled lobbying needs for a bundle of local governments, such as Alachua County, the county commissions in Collier, Columbia and Hillsborough, and the cities of Naples, Palatka and Pembroke Pines.
The firm’s executive branch lobbying report included a nearly identical list of clients and was also topped by Duke Energy. Most of the firm’s executive contracts were in the $15,000 range. Everytown for Gun Safety, the National Football League and Publix were among the notable names in that bracket.
Using median estimates, SBM’s second-quarter haul totals $1.35 million. However, the firm may have earned substantially more.
Both Smith Bryan & Myers’ reports fall within the $500,000 to $1 million overall range. The contracts listed on the legislative compensation report show earnings could have hit the max on that side, while executive reports may have topped out at $920,000. If so, SBM would have earned $1.92 million last quarter.
The median estimate brings the firm to $2.7 million earned so far this year. If SBM posts similarly sized reports in the third and fourth quarters, it will easily surpass its 2020 earnings total of $4.93 million.
Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced an Aug. 14 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering April 1 through June 30. Compensation reports for the third quarter of 2021 are due to the state on Nov. 14.
