Drew Wilson
The lobbying team at Greenberg Traurig closed out 2022 with another Top 10 performance.
The international law firm netted an estimated $4.5 million lobbying the Legislature and $3.1 million lobbying the Governor, Cabinet and state agencies for an overall total of $7.6 million.
Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms list on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000.
In addition to per-client ranges, firms also report overall earnings in broad ranges on their quarterly reports. The ranges in GT Law’s reports show the firm collected no less than $4 million lobbying lawmakers and picked up at least $2 million more in executive branch fees.
The team consisting of Fred Baggett, Roger Beaubien, Christian Brito, Gus Corbella, Hayden Dempsey, Elizabeth Dudek, Fred Karlinsky and Timothy Stanfield may have reeled in as much as $10 million based on the top end of per-client ranges.
The firm’s legislative tally was buoyed by three clients that paid an estimated $180,000 over the course of the year: Baptist Health South Florida, Centauri Specialty Insurance and Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company.
Baptist Health is a nonprofit health care provider that runs 11 hospitals across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, while the other top clients are insurers. The latter industry was a major moneymaker for Greenberg Traurig last year.
In addition to the aforementioned, GT Law’s legislative reports listed Slide Insurance Holdings ($130,000), United Automobile Insurance Company ($100,000), Narragansett Bay Insurance Company ($80,000), American Traditions Insurance Company ($60,000), the Florida Insurance Council ($60,000), Safepoint Insurance $60,000 and Team Focus Insurance ($60,000).
That list is not exhaustive — more than a dozen other insurers retained GT Law for all or part of last year, contributing between $5,000 and $50,000 to the firm’s annual rake in the Legislature. The preponderance also contracted with the firm for executive branch work, netting the firm another payday. Heritage and Slide both repeated at their six-figure contracts, paying a combined total of $360,000 and $260,000, respectively.
GT Law’s legislative reports show 13 contracts worth $100,000 a year or more. The most notable from that set is the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which runs one of the most lucrative gaming enterprises in the world. It showed up with $140,000 in the Legislature and paid another $5,000 for executive branch work.
The firm’s portfolio also includes major international corporations such as AT& and Ford Motor Company, as well as well-known nonprofits such as the Alzheimer’s Association, which recently showered the Old Capitol in purple light to raise awareness of the degenerative neurological disorder and encourage lawmakers to provide research funding in the 2023-24 state budget.
Overall, Greenberg Traurig’s reports show as much as $6.16 million in legislative lobbying revenues and $4 million in executive lobbying revenues, meaning the firm may have earned as much as $10.16 million last year.
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 are due to the state on May 15.
