Lobbying compensation: GrayRobinson earns $3M+ in Q3

GrayRobinson’s lobbying operation is cruising toward another record-setting year.

New lobbying compensation reports show the team led by President and CEO Dean Cannon crossed the $3 million mark in quarterly pay for the third consecutive reporting period, putting the firm’s lobbying arm on track to earn more than $12 million in overall pay for 2023. That would represent a sizable bump from the $10.75 million the firm logged in 2022.

GrayRobinson’s latest reports show $1.6 million in legislative lobbying earnings and $1.43 million in executive branch revenue, for an estimated total of $3.03 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30.

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. Using median estimates, the firm ranked No. 4 on Florida Politics’ Q3 Lobby Firm Rankings.

In addition to Cannon, GrayRobinson’s third-quarter team included Jeff Aaron, Christopher Berg, Christopher Carmody, Carlecia Collins, Larry Cretul, Christopher Dawson, Angela Drzewiecki, Katie Flury, Allison Goodson, Rheb Harbison, John Harris, Michael Huey, Ty Jackson, George Levesque, Jessica Love, Ashley Lukis, Ryan Matthews, Kim McDougal, Thomasina Fornash Moore, Kirk Pepper, Thomas Philpot, Joseph Salzverg, Robert Stuart, John Truitt and Jason Unger.

The sizable lobbying team had no shortage of clients to serve — GrayRobinson listed more than 220 contracts on each of its reports.

The legislative lobbying report was led by Brown & Brown and the Florida Municipal Electric Association, both of which paid $45,000 for the quarter. The University of Central Florida Student Government Association followed at the $35,000 level and a half-dozen other contracts measured in at $25,000 apiece.

The bulk of GrayRobinson’s legislative lobbying clients were marked down in the $15,000 bracket. The set spans a diverse range of industries — fuel station chain Buc-ee’s, computer hardware juggernaut Lenovo, and Generation Next’s favorite soda company, Pepsi, each made an appearance.

The client sheet also housed more than a dozen statewide associations, including the Florida Association of Counties, Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects, the Florida Roofing & Sheet Metal Contractors Association and Florida Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Local governments were another revenue driver for the firm. Their Q3 slate included the city governments for Gainesville, Greenacres, Kissimmee, Leesburg, Orlando and Tallahassee.

Brown & Brown also topped GrayRobinson’s executive branch report, which showed another $45,000 in retainers from the Daytona Beach-based insurance brokerage company. UCF SGA repeated at $35,000 and was joined at that level by Coreview, a software management system vendor. The Florida League of Cities, Hillsborough County Clerk of Court and Comptroller and The Villages all showed up with $25,000 while the remaining clients fell into the $15,000 or $5,000 pay ranges.

Quarterly reports also list an overall revenue range, but the top bracket is $1 million-plus. GrayRobinson hit that threshold on both of its Q3 submissions, meaning it earned no less than $2 million in Q3. Using the top-end of per-client ranges, the firm may have earned as much as $4.8 million in Q3.

Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a Nov. 14 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering July 1 through Sept. 30. Compensation reports for the fourth quarter are due to the state on Feb. 14.