worked to elect officials ranging from local governments, to members of Congress, to president of the United States. > Joseph Salzverg, a former campaign manager and political consultant, had been a legislative analyst for the Florida House of Representatives. “That was a great concentration of leadership experience and talent, but limited to one location,” Cannon explains. “GrayRobinson had a very successful lobbying practice already, but also had 13 offices around the state and a powerhouse of a law firm, too, which was a lot of infrastructure. That would have been impossible to build on my own.” “Now here it is, overnight, by combining forces,” he adds. “The more we talked about it, the more the advantages of combining teams became apparent. Neither one of us needed to do the deal, but we saw great potential benefits if we did. Now, we can see for sure it was the right thing to do.” Unger says the merger is a means of “bringing back people that were part of the family, getting that talent back in.” He’s quick to add: “I don’t look at things as us ‘being at the top.’ I look at it from the standpoint of having the best group of lawyers and lobbyists to represent our clients, whether they’re Florida clients, national clients or international clients.” As of this year, for example, Cannon was registered to lobby on behalf of the City of Orlando, The Villages, PepsiCo and its Frito-Lay and Gatorade subsidiaries, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Monroe County, among others. “As long we stick with our core mission of bringing in the best talent — whether it’s on the lawyering side, lobbying side — we’re moving the right direction,” Unger says. The GrayRobinson team suffered a big loss last year, however. The firm’s top influencer, Fred Leonhardt, died suddenly last October at the age of 65. The lobbying legend was personally registered to represent 46 clients last year, including the Orlando Magic and five Florida cities. GrayRobinson lobbyist Chris Carmody says Leonhardt’s absence spurred him to work harder this past session. He was part of a team of lobbyists that helped score $15 million in the state budget for the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, an obscure but significant economic development initiative in Osceola County. The funds will help it continue to target international businesses and investment to potentially establish a presence in east Central Florida. 106 | INFLUENCE SUMMER/FALL 2016 Overall, “I can’t recall a session where we had so much success,” Carmody says. He and fellow lobbyist Robert Stuart “were the boots on the ground. Session was probably the easiest part of a strange year where your boss and mentor passes away. We know what we need to do in Session. You need to deliver results. You don’t have time to think, ‘poor me, I don’t have a friend and mentor,’ you just get to work.” Carmody realized he and Stuart had to make their own tough calls and “maybe we were more ready than we thought.” “I’ll give Fred credit: He trained us well,” Carmody says. “He gave us a lot of good habits. He gave us a lot of good guidance.” And Leonhardt’s management style echoed the GrayRobinson culture: “Fred had a large personality. He could never go into a room without someone saying, ‘oh, that’s Fred Leonhardt,’ but he made it a point to include Robert, myself and Chris Dawson (a young associate) in just about everything he did — with clients, with legislators. In high-level meetings, we were in the room; in low-level meetings, we were in the room. “It’s still a strange year trying to come up with a new normal, but that new normal is getting to work,” Carmody says. “We’re already making preparations for next session.” The relationships built inside the firm — among people who have different skill sets — thrust it forward, Downs says, as opposed to other large firms that embrace “uniformity.” “That’s not who we are,” she says. “We embrace who each lawyer is and we embrace the communities they reflect … this firm, I remember when I first interviewed in 1986, always had a remarkable commitment to its employees. “On Sunday night, when you’re preparing for your week ahead, we want you to look forward to work, rather than dreading it,” Downs says. Charlie Gray wouldn’t have it any other way. “We did everything we could to build a great firm,” he says. “But I didn’t have any idea it would be as successful as it’s been.” Portions of this article originally appeared on the FloridaPolitics.com website. CENTRAL FLORIDA PHOTOS: Mary Beth Tyson “I don’t look at things as us ‘being at the top’ ... we have the best group of lawyers and lobbyists to represent our clients, whether they’re Florida, national or international clients. ” — JASON UNGER Tim Cerio Mike Huey
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