Florida Bar Needs to Restrict Lawyers Who Serve in Legislature from Working for Lobbying Firms

Being an attorney is one of the more common occupations held by our state's part-time legislators. For some absurd reason, those attorneys are allowed to be employed by law firms whose business includes (or in some cases is totally dedicated to) lobbying that same legislature for their special-interest clients. This wasn't always the case.

To better understand the rules and the history, I spoke with Judge Thomas Gallen, who, a few years ago, retired as Senior Circuit Judge for the 12th Judicial Circuit and Associate Judge on the 2nd District Court of Appeals, after previously serving as Chief Judge of the 12th Circuit. Having not only served as a judge for more than three decades and practiced extensively as an attorney, Gallen also spent 12 years in the state legislature–six in the House and six more in the Senate.

Gallen explained that when he served in Tallahassee, the bar's code of ethics actually prohibited attorneys who were serving in the legislature from practicing law at firms that lobbied. He even cited a former House Speaker during that time, Richard Pettigrew, who left his Miami law firm because they represented pari-mutuel racetracks, and the Florida Bar told Pettigrew that simply recusing himself from voting on related legislation was not enough.

Gallen said that all changed when the bar rescinded that particular code of ethics opinion after the legislature enacted its own ethics rule requiring disclosure of possible financial gain within 15 days of casting a vote. The judge said he found it mind-boggling that the Florida Bar would yield to such a toothless rule by the suspect reasoning that it would cure their own concerns over their attorneys' ethical standing.

Gallen said that because state legislators are exempt from sunshine statutes that prevent local government officials from discussing business that is before them or may come before them for a vote, legislators lobbying each other for support and trading votes on key issues is the most common way that business gets done in the rapid-fire, 60-day annual session.

Lobbyists aren't allowed to walk the floor during session and attempt to corral votes. However, having an attorney who earns money from a lobbying firm clearly circumvents that prohibition. It doesn't matter whether that special interest is technically that attorney/lawmaker's client, or whether they abstain from voting, as they still have a stake in their firm's success–i.e. its ability to draw and maintain big-dollar clients.

Nothing prevents them from performing the most effective service they can for the firm's lobbying clients–using their influence among their colleagues in the Capitol to make sure their interests are served. The current status quo relies wholly on the unseen actions of the Florida lawmaker and an unverifiable trust that they will do the right thing. We'll take a short break until my readers can manage to stop laughing at such a suggestion.

There are too many stories of big lobbying firms hiring state legislators at inflated salaries, while allowing them to traipse off to Tallahassee for sessions, pre-session work, committee work, pre-committee work, etc., all while doing very little in terms of work for the firm. Marco Rubio's time earning $300,000 a year at lobbying firm Broad and Cassel while Speaker of the Florida House has been the most notable, though only because he found himself on a national stage while running for Senate and now President. During the 2012 cycle, Integrity Florida noted at least 10 lawmakers who had such potential conflicts of interest, including Manatee County's Greg Steube.

Steube works for Sarasota-based Becker & Poliakoff. According to the firm's website, Rep. Steube works in the firm’s "Government Law & Lobbying and Business Litigation Practice Groups." Again, Steube may not be assigned to clients who are lobbying the legislature, but as a member of the firm, he still benefits if those clients do well. Senator Rubio's firm explained that he only lobbied local governments.

There are always going to be backroom deals in legislative halls, whether they're located in Tallahassee or Washington. Legislators are always going to offer their support at the price of someone else's, trading votes, twisting arms and exerting other forms of political pressure. There will be influence from donors, PACs and yes, not least of which, paid lobbyists. Nonetheless, that one degree of separation that is currently missing is crucial. How long will it be until every lawmaker in the state is a lobbyist, if special interests can cut out the middle man and employ the legislator more directly?

Floridians should have very little confidence in their state legislature showing the political will or even a palpable interest in rectifying this embarrassing affront to democracy and the concept of citizen representation. The Florida Bar, on the other hand, should aim to hold itself to a much higher standard than the cavalcade of clowns who make the rules in our capitol.

There are plenty of non-lobbying firms where legislator/attorneys can practice law to supplement their income as a "part-time“ legislator. If they want to work for lobbying firms, it should go without saying that they shouldn't be allowed to serve in the legislature. Then again, if they don't already serve in the legislature, they're not going to be nearly as attractive to the firms who lobby it, are they?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why a lobbying firm would want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a lawyer who is not going to be available to come into the office very often because they are busy doing work in the legislature. It shouldn't take a Doctor of Jurisprudence either. If the Florida Bar wants to maintain the appearance of a serious organization far removed from the embarrassing likes of our legislature, it will move to correct this lapse in the ethical standards it sets for those practicing under its admittance.