Our Team

Syl has a distinguished career in Florida and national and international policy and politics spanning four decades. As one of the firm’s key strategic advisor, Syl’s political and policy experience has been critical to the success of the firm’s growth in Florida and its expansion to the national and international level.

As Senior Partner of Ballard Partners, Syl works closely with the firm’s President and founder Brian Ballard, to establish the firm’s presence in strategic markets in the U.S. and abroad, providing strategic and personnel guidance in establishing the firm’s presence throughout Florida, Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Japan and South Korea.

He works closely with all members of the Ballard team regarding a variety of significant federal, state, local and international issues on behalf of both domestic and foreign clients. Most important among them are matters involving U.S. government relations on behalf of foreign governments and private commercial entities and federal health, immigration, trade, tariffs and tax issues before the Legislative and Executive branches of the United States government.

During his forty plus years tenure in Washington as a lawyer and government relations consultant, Syl has represented clients before most federal departments including the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Transportation, Commerce, Treasury, Interior, Homeland Security and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office.

Syl has been a member of the District of Columbia Bar for more than forty years and had the high honor of serving his country as a member of the United States Air Force. Further, his public service career included serving as a Special Assistant to the General Counsel with the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia and as an Assistant Director of a federal government wide Inter Agency Task Force at the U.S. Department of State during the mass immigration crisis commonly known as the Mariel Boat Lift.