There are some lobbyists who will never stop working. Heather Turnbull isn't one of them.

Don't take that the wrong way. She busts her ass all day, every day, all year long for her clients. So much so that she doesn't have much time for doing a lot of the things normal people do on their time off.

So, some years from now, Turnbull will retire and focus more on dogs, cats, parakeets and any other animal that needs help while her colleagues grow old at the Capitol. Until then, she was a Tallahassee powerhouse and Influ- ence Magazine's lobbyist of the year, a tenacious, smart, relentless lobbyist who has earned a reputation as one of the best of the best.

"I can't wait for what I consider my life to start, which will be after this," Turnbull said with a laugh. "My dream is to retire at a reasonable age, to hand this over to all these young talented people. For me, I'm very satisfied with the life I've had here and enjoy it. I love watching people grow, love watching my friends have success and I just want peace and quiet and a bunch of animals."

Turnbull began her career as a trial lawyer in the late 90s after graduating from the University of Arkansas and moving to Miami. It was a very male-dominated world.

"There would be lawyers who were like, 'Hey Sugar! Are you lost?' It was ridiculous," she said. "I worked at an all-male firm and was really looking for some camaraderie and started volunteering at the guardian ad litem program."

That's when she met state Rep. Cindy Lerner, who brought Turnbull to Tallahassee to work as her legislative aide. Turnbull began working for Bill Rubin in 2003 and he promoted her to managing partner of the firm in 2019.

"She is the epitome of a pro's pro. She's the top of the profession," Rubin

said. "She doesn't misdirect people, she won't say something that she can't back up with facts and I think all the legislators know that."

When Turnbull's time with Lerner was ending, Lerner called Rubin, he said. Lerner told him, "I'm going to do you a big favor. I think you ought to hire this woman. She's unbelievable."

But he didn't. He did, though, keep an eye on her work. And then another friend in The Process told him, "you are an idiot; you need to hire her."

"So finally I gave in and hired her and she lived up to the billing and then some," Rubin said. "Her mind is so good, she can cover multiple things at one time."

He said tenacious is a good word to describe her.

"In all instances, she does not want to lose. She does not ever take losing well," Rubin said. "Whether it's the budget, whether it's health care. We've taken on a lot of issues that we've had no business winning and she would just stay at it, and that tenaciousness is really what defines her. She keeps a very, very level head no matter what's coming at her."

Turnbull also earns the respect of her competition.

"I love working with Heather. I hate working against Heather because she's such a "tenacious" advocate for her clients and she's got amazing relationships with legislators, spends a lot of time fostering relationships and raising money," said Nick Larossi. "She's one of the most effective lobbyists in the Capitol by far."

How tenacious? Larossi says when he's working with her for a shared cli- ent, lawmakers will wave a white flag.

"I've had legislators literally say to me, 'I'll be with you, but just don't send Heather back in here. Just tell her I'm

with you guys," Larossi said. "It makes me laugh because it just shows the commitment and tenacity that she has

when she's out there working." But being tenacious doesn't mean being obnoxious.

"She handles it with class and dignity. She doesn't ever take anything personally and is able to maintain friends not just in the Legislature, but among the lobbying corps she competes with," Larossi said.

A PET PROJECT

Turnbull is well known as an advocate for animals. It's her passion. Larossi recalled her taking on a bill to stop puppy mills. He represented pet store owners who were opposed to the bill.

"She was so relentless on that is- sue that several offices we went into said, 'listen, I'm not opposed to what you guys are doing, but I can't have Heather Turnbull come back in here because I'm afraid of what she's going to do to me if I don't support it. So I'm sorry, I have to be with her on that." he recalled.

Her love of animals is how she became a Boy Scout. She wanted to work at the Little Rock Zoo when she was in high school. But at the time, they'd only bring in students who were juvenile delinquents required to fulfill community service, or Boy Scouts.

"So they let me pay my membership to become a card carrying Boy Scout so I could go hang out with the animals," she recalled.

Once Turnbull arrived in Tallahassee, she bought a large piece of property and turned it into a mini-animal rescue. She has four rescue dogs, three rescue cats and built an aviary that now houses 40 rescue parakeets.

She plans to grow that menagerie once she retires and envisions it becoming a sanctuary where people can drop off pets in need of a home.

"If I could have a whole farm, I would," she said. "I went to law school because I wasn't smart enough to get into veterinary school."