Now, GrayRobinson has 300 attorneys in 13 offices across Florida, representing “Fortune 500 companies, emerging businesses, lending institutions, local and state governments, developers, entrepreneurs and individuals across Florida, the nation and the world,” its website says. “We’re looking ahead 20, 25 years,” says Gray, now chairman emeritus. “We have plenty of time to bring in and bring along the next generation. We’ve already got a plethora of great, quality lawyers.” The culture has always been that of a small firm, but with a lot of lawyers. “We don’t need a lot of red tape bogging (our lawyers) down,” he adds. “A banker long ago said, ‘Build your community and you’ll build your bank.’ I adopted that,” Gray says. “You not only want a firm that is excellent in practicing law, but provides a place for lawyers to enjoy the practice of law. You want to leave something behind. Our destiny is to build our community.” Yet the firm’s heart remains in Orlando, where it began. “GrayRobinson is an Orlando law firm that grew to be a meaningful part of 13 communities in this state,” says Mayanne Downs, an Orlando native and the firm’s managing shareholder. “You see in each office the reflection of the community. “When you’re in the Miami office, it feels very much a reflection of the Miami community,” she says. “That comes from Charlie Gray’s focus on community involvement. But we will always be centered and focused on Orlando because that’s where our founder developed our philosophy.” And 2016 has shaped up to be a big year in the firm’s continuing evolution: > Downs, currently Orlando city attorney and past Florida Bar president (2010-11), is the firm’s first woman president and only the second managing shareholder in the last 20 years, succeeding Byrd F. “Biff” Marshall Jr. The changeover took place Sept. 1. Downs was statewide chair of the firm’s Litigation Department before stepping up. She’s been dubbed “Fifth Most Powerful Person in Orlando” by Orlando Magazine. > Tim Cerio, a GrayRobinson alum, was Gov. Rick Scott’s general counsel before returning to the fold. He now focuses on administrative, health care and regulatory law with the firm. Cerio, who first joined GrayRobinson in 2001, also was chief of staff and general counsel at the Florida Department of Health from 2005-07. > Former Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon (2010-12), another GrayRobinson alum, brought his growing lobbying 104 | INFLUENCE SUMMER/FALL 2016 practice with the firm, making it a homecoming of sorts. The combination “makes GrayRobinson’s government relations and lobbying practice the largest such practice in any law firm in Florida and one of the three largest groups of legislative lobbyists in the state overall,” the firm said in a news release. > Jason Unger, managing partner of the Tallahassee office, was a college classmate and fellow Florida Blue Key member with both Cerio and Cannon and helped recruit them back to the firm. Unger is chair of the state’s Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, a body that will help decide the makeup of the court for years to come. (Justice James E.C. Perry will retire this Dec. 30. And Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy A. Quince, who make up the court’s long-standing liberal triumvirate, must leave the bench in early 2019.) “We’re doing in 2016 what we’ve been doing for 20 years, capturing the very best talent we can find,” Downs says. “Our ability to recruit comes from our entrepreneurial spirit and our statewide platform. “So a professional like Tim Cerio, for instance, is at the very top of our list of people who are extraordinarily good at what they do,” she says. “We have a history of sending people into the public sector and then having them come home.” Cerio, a longtime motorcycle enthusiast, recently took some much needed time off to hit the road for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. He spoke from the road on his way there on his Harley Davidson Softail Springer. “My wife cuts me a lot of slack: I don’t play golf, I don’t have a lot of other hobbies, so this one of the things I love doing,” he says. On his return to the firm, Cerio says he was a shareholder in the Tallahassee office before leaving to work for Gov. Scott the first time. He went back to the firm before getting another call from the governor to be his chief lawyer. He replaced Pete Antonacci, another GrayRobinson veteran, who became executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Cerio remains legal counsel to Scott’s “Let’s Get to Work” committee, certain to play a role in whatever Scott does next politically. “I loved public service,” he says. “You may take a hit financially, but it’s worth it and one of the things the firm believes in … I have a lot of great colleagues at the firm, so there’s a lot of deep relationships. “And Dean coming back to the firm was certainly something that mattered a lot to me,” Cerio adds. “He’s one of my very best friends — we went to college together, we were fraternity brothers, I was in his wedding — and he’s one of the people that, frankly, recruited me to the firm back in 2001. There were just a lot of good reasons to go back. It was very much a coming home.” Cannon’s return to GrayRobinson was a homecoming for him as well; he was with the firm from 1995 until 2007. He also followed the call of public service, serving in the House from 2004-12, serving the last two years as head of the chamber. Cannon’s Capitol Insight lobbying firm joined with GrayRobinson in May, creating the third-largest influence shop in Florida, according to the state’s directory of registered lobbyists. With that combination, GrayRobinson likely will be even more of a competitor with lobbying heavyweights for well-heeled, A-list clients needing representation before the Legislature and state agencies. And Cannon, a lawyer since 1993, becomes GrayRobinson’s executive vice president and its statewide chairman of Government Affairs. It’s been a long way since his days as a fledgling associate. “When I started at GrayRobinson, the firm had 33 lawyers, and I was inspired by Charlie Gray, who had been active in law and state politics before Disney, the University of Central Florida, or I-4 existed in Florida,” he says. “Charlie was an example of a great lawyer, active in politics, who also believed in building his community,” he says. “He’s probably said it 100 times, ‘if you build your community, you build your law firm.’ And he built a truly great law firm.” Cannon’s friend, then-state Rep. Jim Kallinger of Winter Park, decided not to seek re-election to the House in 2003, and CENTRAL FLORIDA “You not only want a firm that is excellent in practicing law, but provides a place for lawyers to enjoy the practice of law. You want to leave something behind. Our destiny is to build our community.” — CHARLIE GRAY
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