Ron Christaldi, President & CEO, Shumaker Advisors Florida
July 2026 — The Tampa Bay region continues to solidify its position as a major economic powerhouse, driven by a continual influx of talent and a dedicated effort to maintain political and regulatory stability. In a recent discussion with Invest:, Ron Christaldi, president and CEO of Shumaker Advisors Florida, noted that Hillsborough County remains one of the few areas where post-COVID growth and expansion continue on an upward path, fueling major development across the arts, education, and the booming life sciences sector.
How would you describe the growth and business landscape in Tampa Bay?
The business climate in Florida continues to be fantastic, and particularly in Tampa Bay. Growth in Tampa Bay continues to be on an upward trajectory. My understanding is that growth in most counties post-COVID in Florida has slowed, but Hillsborough is one of three or four that continues to grow and expand.
Making sure that there is a stable regulatory environment has been a priority of the state administration and our local governments, our mayor, and our county commission. They’ve all done a good job of getting us back into a period of time where there’s regulatory and business certainty.
How is the region responding to that growth?
We’ve risen to the challenge as a region in a number of areas. From an arts and cultural perspective, we’ve really continued to grow and get more sophisticated as a region. An example is the African American Arts and Cultural Center. Our county has dedicated resources to that center, providing land and tens of millions of dollars to create this cultural center that will be a jewel for the community. Another example is the Tampa Museum of Art, which is in the midst of a historic expansion that will transform art and architecture in this region.
Having a strong, vibrant arts and cultural scene in Tampa Bay is extremely important, and that has continued to grow over the last year.
How is Shumaker Advisors positioned in the region?
Shumaker is now 100 years old and is the largest combined law and public affairs firm by way of the number of people we employ in Tampa Bay’s eight-county region. We have offices in St. Pete, Tampa, Sarasota, and Dade City in this region, as well as Tallahassee and in many other states.
We have been able to sustain that growth through a fantastic culture. Our culture is one of support and teamwork, with a client-first focus. We have become the place where people want to work. I continue to be the president and CEO of our advisory group, Shumaker Advisors, and that organization is now going into its eighth year as a subsidiary of Shumaker, and it continues to grow, too.
Law firms by their nature don’t publish who their clients are, and so the public doesn’t always know what we are doing, but I can assure you that with almost every significant initiative in this region, someone at Shumaker is touching it in some shape or form.
Which trends are having the greatest influence on your practice areas right now?
The two things that are having the greatest impact are the acceleration of the ability through Zoom to do business that’s not local with people working remotely and AI. That has changed things quite a bit. It has allowed us to have the talent here, but to also service clients in a much broader geography, really nationally and internationally. That’s still transforming the legal industry.
The way the law is structured, lawyers are licensed in jurisdictions and states. I’m licensed in several states, Florida being one of them. The challenge for us is when a client is doing business in a distinct jurisdiction like California, we need to have someone within our firm who can help them, who can give them good advice and help guide them in that endeavor. We’ve met that challenge. We’ve continued to expand. We’ve continued to increase the profile of the depth and breadth of our talent to keep up with that client need, as clients are able to sell their goods and employ people all over the world.
The second factor that’s really dynamic is AI. It’s changing our clients and it’s changing the way we do things. The tools are imperfect, but they’re still very powerful. We are lawyers who are constantly working to be more efficient and to provide services that are more accurate and more complete in a more efficient manner. I believe we’re just scratching the surface as an industry on the impacts of AI and Shumaker is leaning into the technology.
Do you see AI as a threat to your business?
I don’t feel like AI is a threat because what good lawyers do is advise, not just regurgitate facts or produce analysis. What they do need is good analysis and a good set of facts to give that advice based on their client’s circumstances, and so the information we’re getting is quicker and better, and the analysis we’re getting is deeper, and that’s going to be able to position us to provide better advice.
We are embracing AI as a tool, and I think we’re going to, just as with the advent of the internet, change the way we do business. We’re all learning a different way of doing business, aggregating information, and providing analysis, and it’s going to be radically changed as AI gets more powerful. In the upcoming years, AI is going to be the norm in legal services.
What are your top priorities and goals for the next two to three years?
Geographic expansion is one of our key goals. Despite the fact that there’s a lot of technology in use today to help people communicate remotely, there are still some basic, fundamental interpersonal relationships that clients and businesspeople like to have. There’s no true substitute for being in a room with someone. We appreciate that. So, we’re continuing to expand our geography throughout the state of Florida and in the states we serve.
We do want to be technologically on the forefront, so we’re investing in technology and AI to ensure we’re efficient, keeping pace with clients, and providing the highest quality service we can.
The third piece is continued community engagement. We have this tremendous momentum, and we have accomplished so much as a region and as a state, but it’s fragile, and if we don’t continue to nurture it and grow it, it can fall apart. We’re mentoring the next generation of leaders internally and in the community. We’re leaning in as heavily as we can in all sectors like education, arts and culture, leadership, and economic development, both at the local and state levels, to continue to provide stewardship for this valuable resource that we all have in Tampa Bay and the state of Florida.
