Blog of law articles

Did you all catch the story Sunday in the Herald regarding George LeMieux's law firm, Gunster Yoakley, and their recent dealings:

The law firm, chaired by LeMieux, helped foreign workers get visas last fall to help build a hotel and condos in Miami, depriving dozens of Floridians jobs at a time of rising unemployment. CBS4 News in Miami first reported the law firm's efforts, which included persuading the U.S. State Department that the Mexican workers had special skills that Americans didn't. In a statement, the firm said Le-Mieux had no involvement in immigration matters.

• While serving as Crist's chief of staff in 2007, LeMieux secretly helped negotiate a lucrative gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court as unconstitutional and has triggered a debate over the expansion of gambling in Florida. LeMieux recently helped negotiate a second compact that the Legislature will consider this fall. He has said the compact will contribute more money to Florida schools and will limit future expansion of gambling.

• Two weeks before Le-Mieux left Crist's office, Gunster Yoakley & Stewart landed a $500,000 contract representing the state Department of Transportation on two matters. DOT general counsel Alexis Yarbrough, who signed the contract on Dec. 20, 2007, is the wife of Shane Strum, a deputy chief of staff who reported to LeMieux when LeMieux worked for Crist. LeMieux said he played no role in his firm's hiring; DOT has said the firm has special expertise in arcane railroad law. The firm did work for DOT before LeMieux returned there.

• After leaving Crist's office in December 2007, LeMieux earned about $150,000 over a 13-month period as an adviser to state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer, a sideline that has led some to label LeMieux a ``political consultant.'' He will not discuss what he did to earn that money, which was paid from the party's federal account to his firm, MTC Strategies (named after his sons Max, Taylor, and Chase).

• For the past 15 years, West Palm Beach-based Gunster Yoakley has represented U.S. Sugar Corp., which for months negotiated with Crist's office to sell much of its land to the state and federal government to clean up polluted runoff in the Everglades. LeMieux said he avoided any involvement in the U.S. Sugar deal while working for Crist or afterward. The state's chief negotiator was Eric Eikenberg, a LeMieux protégé who succeeded him as chief of staff.

My initial reaction -- wow, I didn't know Gunster was that busy.

This is probably the best press that firm has had in years.

To be serious for a moment, I don't think it's fair to pin the entire firm's book of business on LeMieux.

On the other hand, he is chair of the firm and is their main Tally presence, hence is the go-to guy for clients who want to pull strings up there and need someone with access and the ability to game the system so they can obtain desired responses from state government.

You can't really have it both ways -- either you have no power as Crist's former chief of staff, or you are touted as having special connections and access that will be used to help secure benefits for your clients.

Again, there's nothing illegal about the latter. But let's not pretend LeMieux is something that he is not -- he has been and will continue to serve his clients by manipulating the strings of government on their behalf.

That is clearly a perfectly legitimate form of "lawyering" that has been personally lucrative and professionally successful for Mr. Lemieux.

Whether that makes him a public servant or not is a different question.