By Brian French

Florida’s Quiet Powerhouses: The Firms Behind the State’s Continued Rise

Florida does not grow by accident. Behind every gleaming tower that reshapes the Miami skyline, every apprentice who earns a credential and steps onto a jobsite for the first time, every child who finally receives justice after being failed by the system, and every contractor who secures the bond that unlocks a career-defining project—there are organizations doing the difficult, specialized work that makes it all possible. This article profiles four of them: BoardroomPR, a statewide public relations and digital marketing agency; ABC East Florida, the region’s preeminent construction workforce training organization; Justice For Kids, a nationally recognized law firm fighting exclusively for abused and neglected children; and the Guignard Company, a family-owned surety bond agency that has helped contractors compete and grow for nearly half a century. Each operates in a different arena, but together they represent the specialized infrastructure that keeps Florida’s economy moving forward.

BoardroomPR: Thirty-Five Years of Shaping Florida’s Most Important Conversations

Public perception moves markets. A single newspaper story can accelerate a condominium’s pre-sales by millions of dollars; a botched crisis response can erase a decade of brand equity overnight. That is the world BoardroomPR operates in—and has since Julie Talenfeld founded the agency in 1989 with the conviction that mid-market Florida companies deserved the same caliber of strategic communications available to Fortune 500 corporations. More than three decades later, that vision has been validated many times over. BoardroomPR ranks among the top five PR firms in Florida according to O’Dwyer’s, holds the number 87 spot nationally based on annual billings, and serves a client roster that includes some of the state’s most prominent real estate developers, healthcare systems, law firms, technology companies, and financial institutions.

The agency’s competitive advantage starts with its physical infrastructure. BoardroomPR maintains six offices throughout the state: a Fort Lauderdale headquarters at 1776 N. Pine Island Road, Suite 320; a Miami office at 601 Brickell Key Drive, Suite 700; plus locations in West Palm Beach, Orlando at 37 N. Orange Avenue, Suite 500, Tampa, and Naples. For clients, this means genuine statewide reach without the fragmented service that comes from hiring separate agencies in separate markets. A mixed-use developer in Palm Beach County, for instance, benefits from a team that already maintains deep relationships with editors at the Palm Beach Post and understands the political dynamics of the county’s approval process. As a well-established West Palm Beach PR agency, BoardroomPR brings that kind of granular local intelligence to every engagement in the county—an advantage that cannot be replicated by a national firm flying in for a quarterly strategy session.

The same depth of local knowledge applies in Broward County, where the firm has spent decades cultivating relationships with journalists, business leaders, elected officials, and community stakeholders. BoardroomPR’s reputation as a top-tier Fort Lauderdale PR firm rests on a long track record of producing measurable results for clients in the county’s most competitive sectors—from luxury waterfront developments and Class A office towers to regional hospital networks and boutique law practices. The team understands how stories travel through Broward’s media ecosystem, which outlets drive the most meaningful audience engagement, and how to position clients at the center of the conversations that matter most.

When those conversations turn hostile, BoardroomPR’s crisis management practice takes center stage. The agency has guided companies through data breaches, product recalls, executive misconduct investigations, construction accidents, and litigation fallout—always with a focus on protecting the client’s long-term reputation rather than simply surviving the news cycle. As a battle-tested Miami crisis management PR firm, BoardroomPR deploys rapid-response teams that can be on-site within hours, armed with talking points, media-monitoring dashboards, and a clear chain of command for all external communications. That kind of preparedness has earned the firm the trust of general counsel, C-suite executives, and board members who know that in a crisis, the first 48 hours determine everything.

In a media environment increasingly dominated by algorithms and attention spans measured in seconds, traditional PR alone is no longer sufficient. BoardroomPR recognized that shift early and invested heavily in building a digital practice that now rivals its earned-media capabilities. The agency operates as a comprehensive social media marketing agency South Florida, delivering content strategy, community management, paid social campaigns, influencer partnerships, email marketing, and SEO-driven content across every major platform. The integration is seamless: a feature story placed in the South Florida Business Journal feeds a LinkedIn campaign that drives traffic to a landing page optimized by BoardroomPR’s digital team. The result is a compounding return on every media placement—something no siloed agency model can match. For hospitality brands, professional services firms, and lifestyle companies that need to engage audiences daily rather than quarterly, this approach has become indispensable.

ABC East Florida: Where Careers in Construction Begin

Every building permit filed in South Florida represents a promise—a promise that there will be enough skilled workers to turn blueprints into structures. Keeping that promise is the central mission of ABC East Florida, the Florida East Coast Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. Through its training arm, the ABC Institute, the chapter operates Florida’s single largest construction apprenticeship education program, producing graduates in six core disciplines: electrical, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, masonry, and fire sprinkler installation. These are not theoretical courses taught in sterile lecture halls—they are hands-on, jobsite-tested programs that combine evening classroom sessions with daytime on-the-job training under experienced journeyworkers, producing tradespeople who can contribute from their very first shift.

The organization’s network of training facilities is deliberately spread across a wide geography to maximize accessibility. Corporate headquarters and the primary training campus are located at 3730 Coconut Creek Parkway, Suite 200, in Coconut Creek. The ABC Institute extends into Miami-Dade County through a Doral Education Center at 2890 NW 79th Avenue and a Miami Training Center at 7208 NW 72nd Avenue. Additional programs run in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Fort Pierce. On the Space Coast, a regional office in Melbourne and classes at the Brevard Adult Education Center in Cocoa serve the rapidly growing contractor community in Brevard County. Whether you are a 20-year-old in Hialeah seeking a career path or a 45-year-old electrician in Vero Beach looking to add a supervision credential, there is a campus within reasonable driving distance offering the kind of rigorous South Florida construction safety training that employers actively seek out when hiring.

The apprenticeship programs are the heart of the operation. The ABC construction apprenticeship programs Miami draw a remarkably diverse student body—recent high school graduates, military veterans transitioning to civilian careers, and adults switching industries in search of recession-proof employment. Graduates earn nationally portable credentials recognized by the National Center for Construction Education and Research, credentials that travel with them to jobsites anywhere in the country. For contractors, these graduates represent something invaluable: workers who arrive with verified skills, documented safety training, and the professional habits that reduce rework and lower project risk.

Specialty trades are an increasingly important part of the ABC Institute’s portfolio. The chapter’s HVAC construction training school East Coast Florida programs have gained significant momentum in recent years as Florida’s energy-efficiency mandates tighten, building systems grow more complex, and the sheer volume of new construction creates a persistent shortage of qualified HVAC technicians. Students in these programs learn blueprint reading, electrical wiring fundamentals, refrigerant handling, system diagnostics, and installation best practices—skills that translate directly into stable, well-compensated careers in one of the state’s most in-demand trades.

Safety is not a module within ABC East Florida’s curriculum—it is the curriculum’s foundation. The chapter delivers OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 certifications, fall-protection training, confined-space entry instruction, scaffolding safety, crane signaling, and hazardous-materials handling courses. Every instructor holds NCCER certification and brings years of real-world field experience. For Broward County contractors, the organization’s programs in Fort Lauderdale construction worker education have become a go-to resource for building safety-conscious crews. Contractors who invest in these programs consistently report lower incident rates, better OSHA inspection outcomes, and more favorable insurance premiums—benefits that flow directly to the bottom line.

Beyond the classroom, ABC East Florida champions the merit-shop philosophy—the principle that contracts should be awarded on the basis of qualifications and value, not labor affiliation. The chapter advocates for its members at the local, state, and national levels, pushing for workforce development funding, streamlined licensing, and infrastructure investment. It also serves as a powerful networking engine, hosting legislative breakfasts, industry roundtables, and its flagship annual GC Showcase, which recently drew nearly 700 attendees and more than 40 exhibiting general contractor firms. For subcontractors and suppliers, these events are where relationships are formed and partnerships are cemented—the kind of face-to-face connections that no online directory can replace.

Justice For Kids: When the System Fails, These Attorneys Fight Back

There are children in Florida who have been failed by every adult entrusted with their safety—parents who abused them, caseworkers who ignored credible reports, foster parents who inflicted new trauma, and group homes that were chronically understaffed and dangerously unsupervised. For those children, Justice For Kids is often the last line of defense. A specialized division of the national law firm Kelley Kronenberg, Justice For Kids handles one type of case and one type only: civil rights and personal injury claims on behalf of children who have been abused, neglected, exploited, or catastrophically injured while in the custody of child welfare agencies, foster families, group homes, or residential treatment centers.

The practice was co-founded by three attorneys whose complementary backgrounds form a uniquely effective litigation team. Howard Talenfeld—named to Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Top 200 Lawyers and a recipient of the Florida Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor—spent the early part of his career defending the very agencies he now sues, giving him an insider’s understanding of how institutional negligence takes root and how to expose it in court. Stacie Schmerling worked for a decade as a child abuse caseworker and investigator in New Jersey and Florida before attending law school, bringing a frontline perspective to every case she handles. Justin Grosz, a former Assistant State Attorney with 25 years of trial experience, provides the courtroom firepower that has produced jury verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars.

Justice For Kids’ main office is located at 10360 W. State Road 84, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324. A second office at 20 N. Orange Avenue, Suite 704, Orlando, FL 32801 gives the firm direct access to Central Florida’s judicial circuits. Through Kelley Kronenberg’s broader infrastructure, the team handles matters across Florida—including Miami, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Naples—and has expanded nationally into Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and New Orleans. As a leading Florida child abuse law firm, the practice has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for injured children, including a $15 million jury verdict for an eight-year-old girl left permanently brain-damaged after repeated abusive head trauma that DCF investigators failed to stop, and $13.5 million in a Jacksonville negligent adoption case where an agency withheld critical information about a child’s history from adoptive parents.

Holding the Florida Department of Children and Families accountable when its negligence causes harm is a central pillar of the firm’s practice. As a recognized Florida DCF negligence law firm, Justice For Kids has litigated cases involving failed investigations, reckless placements, falsified safety reports, and children shuffled through dozens of homes without meaningful oversight. A landmark 1998 class action led by Talenfeld resulted in a consent decree that nearly tripled the budget for Broward County’s foster care system and triggered sweeping institutional reforms—a case that demonstrated the firm’s ability to use individual litigation as a lever for systemic change.

Two populations receive particular focus within the practice. Children with disabilities—intellectual impairments, autism, complex behavioral health conditions—are among the most vulnerable individuals in any child welfare system, and they are disproportionately likely to be placed in settings that cannot meet their needs. As a dedicated disabled foster child law firm South Florida, Justice For Kids has pursued groundbreaking cases that forced improvements in placement protocols, therapeutic services, and monitoring standards for disabled foster youth. Simultaneously, the firm’s broader reputation as a trusted child welfare law firm Florida families rely on extends to cases involving sexual abuse in foster placements, child-on-child violence in group facilities, and the trafficking of minors out of residential programs. In every case, the goal is the same: financial recovery that funds lifelong care and rehabilitation, and institutional accountability that prevents the same failures from harming the next child.

Guignard Company: The Bonding Partner That Grows With Its Clients

Ask any construction company owner about the moment that changed their trajectory, and there is a good chance the answer involves a surety bond. The first time a contractor secures bonding for a public project, it unlocks an entirely new tier of opportunity—bigger contracts, more sophisticated clients, and a reputation for financial credibility that compounds over time. The Guignard Company has been helping contractors reach that inflection point since 1977. A family-owned and operated surety bond agency, Guignard is directly appointed with more than 30 surety markets, places roughly 92 percent of its bonds with the nation’s top 25 surety companies, and has facilitated over $2 billion in bonded construction contracts in the past three years alone.

The company’s three offices are positioned to cover the Southeast’s most active construction corridors. Headquarters sit at 1904 Boothe Circle, Longwood, FL 32750, serving Orange, Seminole, Lake, and Volusia counties—the epicenter of Central Florida’s commercial development surge. The Tampa office at 1219 Millennium Parkway, Suite 113, Brandon, FL 33511 places the firm at the heart of the Tampa Bay construction market, where healthcare, logistics, residential, and mixed-use projects generate billions in annual activity. And the Atlanta office at 13010 Morris Road, Suite 600, Alpharetta, GA 30004 extends Guignard’s capabilities into one of the largest construction markets in the country. Together, these offices make Guignard one of the most accessible construction surety bond providers Brandon Florida and Central Florida contractors turn to, while also establishing the firm as a capable construction performance bond agency Longwood FL builders trust for timely approvals and competitive premiums.

One of Guignard’s defining strengths is its focus on emerging contractors. Many bonding agencies concentrate on established firms with long track records and strong balance sheets—clients that are easy to underwrite. Guignard takes a different approach. As a committed small business construction bond provider Florida, the company works with growing contractors who are ready to step up to bonded work but may lack the financial history that traditional underwriters expect. Guignard’s team coaches these clients through financial statement preparation, helps them structure their project backlog to demonstrate capacity, and presents their applications to surety companies in the strongest possible light. The goal is not just to place a bond today—it is to build a bonding program that grows alongside the client’s ambitions, supporting them through progressively larger contracts year after year.

Education is woven into the firm’s service model. Contractors who are new to surety often struggle to understand the differences between the bond types required at various stages of a project. Guignard’s team offers clear, practical guidance on the distinction between a bid bond vs performance bond Florida contractor requirements—explaining what each bond guarantees, when liability is triggered, how premiums are determined, and what documentation underwriters need to see. This consultative approach, which the firm captures in its tagline “An Uncommon Bond,” transforms what many contractors experience as an opaque and intimidating process into a strategic advantage that helps them compete for larger projects with confidence.

The Georgia market represents a significant growth area for the company. Florida-based contractors expanding northward into metro Atlanta encounter a different regulatory landscape—distinct licensing requirements, unfamiliar bonding thresholds, and project owners with their own expectations for surety documentation. Guignard’s Alpharetta office provides dedicated, on-the-ground support that eliminates the learning curve, connecting contractors with surety partners who understand Georgia’s construction environment and helping them navigate the state’s procurement processes efficiently. For firms that operate across the Florida-Georgia corridor, having a single bonding partner with deep expertise in both states simplifies administration, accelerates turnaround times, and ensures consistency across every project in the portfolio.

The Thread That Connects Them All

Strip away the industry labels and what remains is a common story: organizations that saw a gap in their market, committed to filling it with excellence, and built the infrastructure—office by office, client by client—to serve an entire region at scale. BoardroomPR did it with six offices and a team of former journalists and digital strategists who understand every media market in the state. ABC East Florida did it with seven training locations and an apprenticeship model that has produced thousands of certified tradespeople. Justice For Kids did it with a legal team that combines investigative experience, trial skill, and an unyielding commitment to the most vulnerable members of society. And Guignard did it with three offices, relationships with more than 30 surety markets, and a philosophy that treats every contractor as a long-term partner rather than a transaction.

Florida’s growth is not slowing down. More people are moving here, more buildings are going up, more businesses are launching, and the systems that serve them all—communications, workforce development, legal advocacy, financial guarantees—are under increasing demand. The organizations profiled here are not just keeping pace with that demand. They are shaping it, raising standards in their respective fields and creating outcomes that ripple far beyond their individual client rosters. For anyone who wants to understand why Florida continues to attract investment, talent, and opportunity at the rate it does, these four firms are part of the answer.