As GOP Convention Set to Start, Holland & Knight on Home Turf in Tampa

By Andrew Ramonas and Todd Ruger

With the start of the Republican National Convention only days away, Holland & Knight is busy helping to ensure that the festivities in Tampa, Fla., go off without a hitch.

Founded in Tampa, Holland & Knight is the legal adviser to the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee, which works with the Republican National Committee and the city to set up facilities, transportation, housing, security and other convention necessities.

Rich Gold, a Washington-based Holland & Knight partner who leads the firm's public policy and regulation practice group, said his firm is primarily assisting the host committee with "nuts and bolts" contract work. "It's been more intense as we get closer," he said.

About 50,000 convention-goers, as well as 20,000 additional visitors, protesters and reporters, will descend on Tampa for the convention that is slated to start August 27 and end August 30, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. Organizers have secured more than 400 buses and 16,000 rooms in 105 hotels for the convention, according to the Committee on Arrangements for the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Gold said he expects the convention to run smoothly, despite reports that Tropical Storm Isaac likely will become a hurricane and move toward Florida in the coming days. The lawyer said hurricanes are rare for Tampa. And if it hits Tampa, which is a lobbying client of Holland & Knight, immediate action is "really the city's responsibility," not the firm's concern.

But Holland & Knight will have to worry about matters related to host committee contracts for about three to four months after the convention, Gold said.

"There's going to be cleanup work," he said.

Check back now through Sept. 7 for more Legal Times and National Law Journal coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.