Florida Lobbying Experience

GrayRobinson maintains a considerable record of success navigating Florida’s budget and appropriations process. Each legislative session, we work to ensure members of the Legislature clearly recognize the value and potential impact of our clients’ funding priorities, positioning them for inclusion in the state budget. Our team actively advances and defends funding throughout session, championing and successfully helping to secure millions of dollars each year for our clients' infrastructure, utilities, educational research initiatives, environmental resilience, corrections reform, tourism, transportation, health and human services, and economic development projects and programs.

GrayRobinson represents both public and private sector clients in advancing economic development, workforce, infrastructure, and other pro-business priorities statewide. In recent years, our team has helped secure major workforce investments, expand high-demand technical training programs, strengthen reentry and youth opportunity initiatives, support higher education and health care workforce pipelines, and obtain significant state and local economic development funding, including Florida Job Growth Grant Fund awards and other targeted appropriations. Our attorneys and advisors support clients in shaping policy, defeating harmful proposals, and positioning communities and industries for sustainable growth and development. This work builds on a long history of engagement in key statewide initiatives, support for the Legislature’s “jobs bills,” efforts to protect the State Transportation Trust Fund, and coordinated advocacy for Florida’s aviation and seaport priorities.

Our lobbying team includes some of the most experienced professionals in Florida education policy, with decades of experience representing and serving public sector clients across the full spectrum of the state’s education system. We remain deeply engaged in the evolution of education policy and are well-versed in Florida’s governance structure, having worked closely with the State Board of Education, the Board of Governors, university and state college trustees, the Commissioner of Education, and the chancellors of both the K–12 and college systems. Our team has also worked extensively with the Office of Early Learning.

In addition, our advisors have long-standing relationships with school boards, student government associations, college foundations, community colleges, and major universities statewide. This depth of experience enables us to provide clients with meaningful insights, strategic guidance, and a practical understanding of the complex policy and funding challenges facing Florida’s education community.

The GrayRobinson team is deeply engaged in legislative activities related to this critical local government priority. Historically, the firm played a significant role in the legislation that effectively dismantled the former Department of Community Affairs, transferring its oversight responsibilities to the Department of Economic Opportunity (now the Department of Commerce) and substantially reducing the State’s review of local growth management plans. On the legal side, representing local governments has been a core element of our legal practice since the firm’s founding over 55 years ago. Our longstanding work advising local governmental entities on complex growth management, land use, and regulatory matters has provided us with a comprehensive understanding of how legal strategy and legislative advocacy intersect at the county and municipal levels, thereby strengthening our ability to support clients facing these issues.

The GrayRobinson lobbying team represents a diverse range of leading health care institutions, including health care districts, hospitals, and laboratories. We maintain direct working relationships with all federal and state health agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the Florida Department of Health, the Department of Insurance, and the Board of Medicine. Our attorneys and advisors maintain trusted relationships with agency leadership and general counsel offices, enabling us to navigate complex regulatory environments and advocate effectively for clients subject to strict oversight. Drawing on this access, experience, and policy insight, we play an active role in shaping and influencing significant health care initiatives and reform efforts at both the state and local levels, helping to protect client interests while advancing meaningful health care solutions.

Our team has played a leading role in advancing reforms and policy improvements that enhance community safety, strengthen Florida’s workforce, and support law enforcement and justice system partners statewide. We have helped shape landmark criminal justice reform measures that prioritize accountability while reducing barriers to successful reentry, improving access to victim compensation, modernizing probation responses, and advancing meaningful workforce and licensing opportunities for citizens returning to the workforce.

We have also championed forward-looking initiatives that support law enforcement preparedness and youth engagement, including securing resources for enhanced investigative tools and programs designed to inspire the next generation of public safety leaders. In addition, we have successfully advocated for legislation that expedites protective processes for victims, strengthens safeguards in school and work zones, helps address unlawful protest activity at private residences, and equips agencies with additional tools to address dangerous street activity.

Through these efforts, and through its long-standing relationships with legislative leaders, law enforcement, local governments, and advocacy organizations, GrayRobinson continues to shape pragmatic and impactful public safety policies across Florida.

Transportation is a cornerstone of Florida’s economy and quality of life, and GrayRobinson is a trusted partner in advancing the policies, funding, and infrastructure investments that keep the state moving. Our team works across every sector of Florida’s transportation landscape, including regional planning organizations, transit systems, airports, seaports, and emerging mobility providers, to position critical projects for success. Whether the objective is defending essential trust funds, securing appropriations, modernizing governance structures, or navigating complex regulatory challenges, we bring the strategic insight, relationships, and persistence needed to deliver results.

Our team helps shape initiatives that expand transit access, enhance pedestrian safety, strengthen port and aviation infrastructure, and support the continued competitiveness of Florida’s transportation hubs. We play a key role in advancing resilience initiatives, ensuring transportation assets are eligible for critical funding, and protecting revenue structures essential to long-term stability. Our advocacy also supports advancements in innovative mobility, including laws impacting transportation network companies, drones, autonomous systems, and technology-driven operations, helping Florida remain a leader in transportation innovation.

Above all, our approach reflects a sustained partnership. We support clients not only in achieving one-time wins but in building long-term strategies that anticipate challenges, leverage opportunities, and strengthen Florida’s transportation network statewide. Through thoughtful advocacy and practical problem-solving, GrayRobinson consistently delivers results that help move Florida forward.

GrayRobinson provides comprehensive legal and legislative representation to water, wastewater, utility, and environmental authorities across Florida. Our team advises special districts, municipal utilities, and county systems on a range of issues, including waste and recycling policy, renewable energy, environmental permitting, financing, and regulatory compliance. In Tallahassee, we actively monitor and influence legislation affecting utilities, waste systems, recycling programs, environmental regulation, and special districts, helping clients secure favorable statutory language, defeat harmful preemption efforts, and obtain critical funding for infrastructure, resiliency, and community priorities. We help clients successfully navigate permitting challenges, landfill redevelopment, stormwater and wastewater initiatives, resource recovery facilities, and major environmental infrastructure projects, while also securing significant grant and appropriations funding to support community resilience, environmental protection, and essential public utilities.

A key strength of our practice is the combination of subject-matter expertise and strategic execution. Ryan Matthews, Government Affairs and Lobbying Deputy Section Chair, brings decades of regulatory and environmental experience and is a former Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, enhancing our insight into agency processes and state decision-making. This depth of knowledge, combined with our longstanding relationships with policymakers and agency leadership, enables us to effectively translate the technical, financial, and operational needs of our clients into highly effective advocacy.