A Tallahassee judge sided with life insurance companies Monday, restricting preliminary information-gathering by the state in defense of a new law requiring insurers to track down beneficiaries. The outside lawyer for the Department of Financial Services, which advocated for the measure, said he plans to appeal the decision that allows only limited discovery.
Greenberg Traurig now is the largest law firm in the United States, based on the number of U.S. lawyers, according to the Law360 400 list, compiled by the legal news service of the same name. The firm, which has gone international, was founded in Miami in 1967 by lawyers Mel Greenberg, Larry Hoffman and Robert Traurig. It’s now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Today, the firm has more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States (including seven in Florida), Latin America, Europe,…
Summertime is here — well, almost. While Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces, the holiday also marks the unofficial start to summer. And for many people, that means it’s time to start thinking about summer vacation. More than 39.9 million Americans are expected to travel more than 50 miles away from home this Memorial Day, making one of the highest volume of travel since 2005, according to AAA – The Auto…
The numbers are out. Registered legislative lobbying firms reported median earnings of more than $35.7 million in the first quarter of 2017. The Top 5 earners during the three-month period were Ballard Partners, Southern Strategy Group, Ronald L. Book PA, Capital City Consulting, and Greenberg Traurig. If those rankings look familiar, there’s a reason for that. The five firms were ranked among the Top 5 firms each quarter in 2016. And according to LobbyTools Legislative IQ, it appears the pentad…
Registered governmental affairs firms, representing virtually every industry in Florida, reported earning more than $31.75 million from October 1 to December 31 of 2016 to lobby the Florida Legislature. FloridaPolitics.com previously reported which firms made what, with Ballard Partners leading all firms in Q4 compensation. The 2016 Q4 numbers were down slightly from the 2015 Q4 numbers ($31.75 mil to $32.375 mil), likely because the 2016 Legislative Session began in January. The month before Session commences, in this case, December of 2015, typically sees the…
The Seminole Tribe of Florida has objected to a request by a North Florida race track to alter a federal judge’s ruling allowing the tribe to keep blackjack at its casinos. Greenberg Traurig attorney Barry Richard, who represents the Tribe, filed his memorandum in opposition to Gretna Racing’s motion to intervene last week, court records show. Its attorneys, David Romanik and Marc Dunbar, had asked Hinkle to remove the part of his ruling they say could make it a “crime” for the track’s cardroom to continue offering…
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is opposing the state’s asking a federal judge to reconsider his decision to let the Tribe keep blackjack at its casinos. The tribe filed a legal memo last week in opposition to the state’s motion. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that regulators working under Gov. Rick Scott allowed dog and horse tracks to offer card games that mimicked ones that were supposed to be exclusive to tribe-owned casinos for a five-year period. Hinkle ruled that…