{"id":30146,"date":"2025-11-02T12:25:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T12:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/30146\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T12:25:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T12:25:06","slug":"uthmeiers-employment-with-grayrobinson-raises-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/30146\/","title":{"rendered":"Uthmeier’s employment with GrayRobinson raises questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

When James Uthmeier<\/a> took a leave of absence from Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration so he could run the governor\u2019s flailing presidential campaign in 2023, he also signed on with one of the state\u2019s most powerful and politically connected law firms, which regularly lobbies the state of Florida on behalf of its clients.<\/p>\n

His time at the law firm was brief. What he did there and what he got paid are not publicly known. But Uthmeier\u2019s stint at the private practice \u2014 reported for the first time here \u2014 raises ethical and legal questions about the Republican attorney now running for the job of Florida\u2019s top prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Financial disclosure forms filed by Uthmeier show he worked for GrayRobinson from September 2023 to January 2024. The law firm\u2019s lobbying clients include Meta Platforms, Walt Disney World and Uber, and GrayRobinson also has provided legal services to the state, racking up more than $140 million in billings over the last five years.\n<\/p>\n

Uthmeier returned to his job as DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff after the GOP governor suspended his presidential campaign in early 2024 following a resounding defeat by Donald Trump in the Iowa caucus. DeSantis this year appointed Uthmeier to fill the remaining term of former Attorney General Ashley Moody,\u00a0whom he\u2019d appointed to the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

This revolving-door arrangement between the state\u2019s top office and a high-powered law firm that lobbies for its clients in Tallahassee and has made millions doing business with the state opens a gate to potential conflicts of interest, political experts said. More broadly, it illustrates powerfully the incestuous nature of politics and influence in Florida, where the lines between public servants and special interests are often blurred.<\/p>\n

Those possibilities are\u00a0magnified as Uthmeier now campaigns for attorney general in the 2026 election and has become a key figure in the Hope Florida scandal<\/a>. One of GrayRobinson\u2019s longtime clients is Centene, a national healthcare provider whose $67 million Medicaid settlement is at the center of that controversy.<\/p>\n

As the state\u2019s top criminal prosecutor and a member of the Florida Cabinet, which along with the governor votes on land deals, insurance regulation\u00a0and other state business,\u00a0Uthmeier could have a conflict in cases or business involving GrayRobinson or its clients, experts said. And if his employment at the law firm was an arrangement made with the governor\u2019s presidential campaign, there could be a breach of election laws.<\/p>\n

But there are no clear guidelines restricting state employees from going to a private law firm and then back on the public payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that\u2019s done all the time because the Florida Bar and Supreme Court never said anything critical about it,\u201d said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. \u201cThat\u2019s the problem here. The lines are very messy and very blurry.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a year later, it is still not clear what Uthmeier did while at GrayRobinson or how he landed the job. He hasn\u2019t answered repeated requests for comment, and neither has Dean Cannon, the former Republican Speaker of the House who currently runs GrayRobinson. The firm\u2019s PAC, however, has donated $3,000 to Uthmeier\u2019s 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n

The question, Jarvis said, is what did GrayRobinson hope to gain from hiring the campaign manager of a presidential candidate? \u201cUthmeier would have given them inside track if DeSantis got elected. Everybody wants inside influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier\u2019s tenure at GrayRobinson was so brief, Jarvis said, he suspects that Uthmeier \u201cdid nothing \u2026 but collect a paycheck \u2026 .And he couldn\u2019t have had time to do legal or lobbying work if he was on the campaign trail all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

GrayRobinson was no doubt reaping \u201cthe ancillary benefits of having someone listed on their law firm roster who was working on the campaign of a rising star at the time,\u201d agreed Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.<\/p>\n

Whether it is good for the public, from both an economic and ethical standpoint, depends on whether Uthmeier participated in cases for GrayRobinson clients doing business with the state and then continued to help them once he was back in the governor\u2019s office, Jewett said.<\/p>\n

But the financial disclosure forms that shows Uthmeier worked for GrayRobinson do not require him to list any cases or clients, making it hard to determine if he had conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that the current Attorney General worked for a lobbying firm raises ethical constraints about what companies he interacts with as attorney general,\u201d said Gregory Koger, a political science professor at the University of Miami. \u201cHe should be careful to avoid making decisions about those clients the firm represented during that time he worked there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theoretically Uthmeier could have a full-time job with the law firm and work on a campaign on the side, Koger said. \u201cBut if he is drawing a salary and not doing any work for GrayRobinson that could be construed as a campaign contribution,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

GrayRobinson\u2019s political committee donated $5,000 in June of 2023 to Never Back Down, a Super PAC created to support DeSantis\u2019 presidential campaign. Nothing in the campaign report describes what might be construed as a payment to Uthmeier.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier\u2019s 2024 disclosure form, filed after he became Attorney General, shows he earned $7,650 from GrayRobinson and $9,583 from the DeSantis campaign in January of that year \u2014 the same month the campaign folded \u2014 and an annual salary of nearly $180,000 as the governor\u2019s chief of staff, the post he returned to. His financial disclosure for 2023 was a different type of form and only required that he note where he worked, not how much he was paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around the same time Uthmeier began to work for GrayRobinson, the firm was engaged to represent DeSantis in a lawsuit filed by Monique Worrell, a Democrat whom DeSantis removed from the state attorney\u2019s job in Orange and Osceola counties. He claimed she was failing to do her job. She denied the charges and was re-elected last year. Uthmeier has been relentless in his criticism of her performance<\/a> ever since.<\/p>\n

The firm\u2019s initial contract was for $349,998 but a second purchase order for the same amount was issued later. It\u2019s a fraction of the nearly $140 million the law firm has billed the state over the past five years. The firm,\u00a0 founded in Orlando in 1970, employs more than 300 lawyers and consultants with 16 offices across Florida and one in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

One of the attorneys assigned to the Worrell case was Jeff Aaron, a friend of Uthmeier who would start his own law firm a year later. Aaron\u2019s new firm was hired as counsel to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity associated with First Lady Casey DeSantis with a goal of getting Floridians off welfare.<\/p>\n

The foundation, and its role in funneling money from a state settlement into a political action committee, was the subject of a legislative probe in the spring and is now being investigated by a Leon County grand jury.<\/p>\n

Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, who headed up the legislative examination of Hope Florida, has accused Uthmeier, then back in his role as DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff, and Aaron of money laundering and conspiring to commit fraud, arguing they helped move $10 million that was part of a $67 million settlement with Centene to Hope Florida. Both have denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The foundation then sent the money \u2014 which Andrade said should have been spent on state health care costs \u2014 to two nonprofits, which in turn sent most of it to a political action committee run by Uthmeier on DeSantis\u2019 behalf. The Keep Florida Clean committee was set up to defeat the 2024 ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n

Andrade called Uthmeier\u2019s employment by GrayRobinson \u201ca huge conflict of interest\u201d because he didn\u2019t officially resign as chief of staff when he went to the campaign and the law firm, leaving governor office duties to a secretary who answered directly to him. \u201cJames was still in control of the daily business of the governor\u2019s administration\u201d while being paid by a lobbyist, Andrade said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure every lobbyist in Florida would love to know who the chief of staff will be in five months and have the opportunity to pay them a check for what I assume was a \u2018no show\u2019 job,\u201d Andrade said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Uthmeier had financial connections to each of the opposing sides in the Medicaid settlement agreement with Centene \u2014 to the state of Florida, as the governor\u2019s top staffer for policy and administrative decisions, and to the company, through its employment of GrayRobinson.<\/p>\n

Records show Uthmeier set up meetings between state officials and lawyers for Centene in 2022, about a year before he began working for GrayRobinson. Those negotiations broke off in 2023 after the state fired the outside law firm it had originally hired to negotiate the original agreement.<\/p>\n

Negotiations resumed in 2024 after Uthmeier came back to the state and concluded that September, with the state agreeing to give $10 million of that settlement money to Hope Florida.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier has denied playing any role in the settlement agreement negotiations but has said as far as he could tell it all looked legal. He also has defended spending the money fighting the medical marijuana initiative as in the state\u2019s best interests. DeSantis\u2019 committee spent millions of dollars on advertising and the amendment fell short of the 60% approval it needed to pass.<\/p>\n

But because of his brief employment with the lobbyist for Centene, one cannot help but wonder what influence Uthmeier had in changing the terms of the settlement agreement, Jewett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know every fact and detail yet but it looks like a probability of a conflict of interest and ethically whose best interests are at the heart of the thing,\u201d Jewett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When James Uthmeier took a leave of absence from Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration so he could run the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,114,115,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-30146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}