SUMMER/FALL 2016 INFLUENCE | 43 LAWYER-LOBBYIST NICOLE “NIKKI” FRIED has left Colodny Fass to form her own South Florida influence shop. The new firm, called Igniting Florida, will be based in Fort Lauderdale. Fried now works in Sunrise. Fried, who’s become a go-to person in medical marijuana lobbying, will keep her clients. They include San Felasco Nurseries, the Gainesville-based grower that won an administrative challenge for a medical pot-growing permit. It was issued a license in April. This past session, she also helped get a bill (HB 307) passed that expands the state’s Right to Try Act to include medical marijuana. The expansion means terminally ill patients will be able to use medical marijuana during their final days. She also represents health care and insurance concerns, and The Florida Bar. In 2014, she received an award from The Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee “for her leadership of the Florida’s Children First lobbying team,” according to her bio. She worked on passage of a bill “that provided $4.5 million in appropriations to ensure Florida’s disabled dependent children have access to lawyers,” the bio says. Fried now serves on the Bar’s Standing Committee on the Legal Needs of Children. The 38-year-old received her undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Florida, where she was student body president, and a Hall of Fame and Blue Key member. Fried then got a master’s degree in political campaigning and law degree, also from UF. She currently serves on her alma mater’s Governmental Relations Advisory Committee. BFR Nikki Fried opens her own Fort Lauderdale practice FAMU taps Karen Skyers as Distinguished Alumna Tampa attorney Karen Skyers has been named a member of the “Distinguished Alumni” by the Florida A&M University College of Law. Skyers, now with the Government Law & Lobbying Practice Group at Becker & Poliakoff, received the award May 14. It “recognizes alumni who have excelled in the legal profession while contributing to the community and school,” according to a press release. She graduated from the law school in 2010. Skyers, who also speaks Spanish, was secretary of the Black Law Student Association and a leader in the Hispanic Law Student Association during her time at FAMU Law in Orlando. She was a legislative aide to state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, the Tampa Democrat who rose to serve as Senate minority caucus leader in 2014-16. Skyers later was a lobbyist for Southern Strategy Group. She is a former public defender for Hillsborough County and worked as a child protective investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families, according to Skyers’ bio. She also has interned for the federal Public Defender’s Office in Orlando, and at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Washington, D.C. PHOTOS: Courtesy Karen Skyers and Nikki Fried
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