Staff Reports
One of Florida’s newest lobbying firms, Continental Strategy, saw massive revenue growth in its second year lobbying the state government.
Former Ambassador and state Rep. Carlos Trujillo co-founded Continental alongside three established trial lawyers in early 2022, and the fast-growing team managed to pull down $1.9 million by the end of the year — enough to earn a spot among the Top 25 firms in the state.
In 2023, the firm more than doubled that total, reporting an estimated $4.5 million earned across its work in the legislative and executive branches.
According to FP’s metrics, Continental is now the #12 firm in executive branch lobbying compensation.
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.
Continental Strategy’s reports show two legislative clients that hit the six-figure mark last year — Charter Communications and DroneUp. Meanwhile, World Wide Technology, Google and CrowdStrike each showed up at $100,000 or more on the firm’s executive branch reports.
In total, the firm’s legislative compensation reports list 80 clients that paid a combined $2.2 million last year. Some other majors included the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida and the University of Miami, both at $90,000, followed by the City of Doral, Elevance Health and the Florida Optometric Association at $80,000 apiece.
Continental’s executive branch reports list 91 clients that paid approximately $2.3 million to retain the firm last year, the twelfth-best total among Florida lobbying firms last year. The top of the client sheet features most of the same names as the legislative branch report, with the addition of Okta at $90,000 and ZScaler at $70,000. Both companies also had legislative contracts, but they were around the $20,000 level on that side of the fence.
Using the top end of per-client ranges, Continental Strategy could have earned as much as $6 million in 2023. At minimum, the team raked in $3.25 million.
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.
