Daniel Reinhard

Dan offers a unique perspective to clients having led an international legal team through complex, sell-side financings, acquisitions of major businesses, and corporate governance projects. His experiences enable him to better advise clients in complex decisions involving regulatory and government affairs.

His previous roles include serving as General Counsel for a full-service commercial real estate firm based in downtown Detroit, which specializes in the strategic development of urban cores. Dan also served as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for JACK Entertainment.

Dan earned his J.D., from Capital University Law School, and he earned his B.S. in Human Nutrition from The Ohio State University.

Prior to working as corporate counsel in Detroit, Dan served as an attorney at Calfee from 2003-2015. He joined Calfee’s Columbus office in 2021.

Honors & Recognitions

• The Best Lawyers in America, Energy Law (2024-2025)

Education

J.D., Capital University Law School, 2001

B.S., Human Nutrition, The Ohio State University, 1997

Experience

• Representing television provider clients before the General Assembly monitoring legislation that impacts the clients' business. In the past year, we have worked with the clients, their in-house legislative counsel, and their legislative representatives from approximately 12 states to enact legislation to prevent the application of cable franchise fees to streaming video services offered by the clients over the internet. We helped review and edit draft legislation and supporting materials to fit our political and policy climate, conducted legislative outreach efforts, obtained legislative sponsors, worked on amendments with interested parties, and saw the legislation successfully amended into a legislative vehicle and passed by the General Assembly, all over a five-month period.
• Assisted in an effort to modernize the state’s lease-to-own laws from an older, in-person model of consumer sales and disclosure to allow a business model of partnering with online retailers and providing digital disclosure for in-store purchases. Calfee worked with the client to customize the nationally agreed-upon language to reflect Ohio laws. We also connected the client with the Ohio Attorney General, the enforcement office for the state’s consumer protection laws, to gain their support for the language. We obtained legislative sponsors for an amendment to the language in the state’s biennial operating budget bill and conducted an educational campaign with legislative members. Despite only having a couple of months and starting after the budget bill was introduced and passed by the Ohio House, we obtained inclusion of the amendment in the Ohio Senate’s version of the budget and maintained its inclusion through to passage.
• Serving as the representative in Ohio in all government-related matters for an affiliated organization of one of the largest business associations in the U.S. Calfee's focus for this client is tort reform, which this year has included collaborating with local business partners to support two pieces of legislation. We serve as the client’s local Ohio representative to bring a national perspective to promote uniformity in state laws for businesses. We monitor the legislation, coordinate client participation in legislative hearings and interested party meetings, provide feedback on legislative edits, and help set the collaboration’s legislative strategy.
• Serving as a technology company’s representative in Ohio in all government-related matters. Calfee has assisted the client with its introduction to the Ohio government and our legislative process. We assisted the client in meeting and educating Ohio elected officials on the important aspects of the client’s industry-leading technology. During the process, we have helped elected officials separate fact from fiction regarding both the client’s history and its business model, untangling the complicated social media industry for officials who are seeking information. We have helped the client establish relationships and lines of communication, which will allow the state and the client to productively address concerns raised with fast-moving technology. In addition, we have connected the client to legislative members to provide input on a number of pending legislative proposals.
• Serving as the representative in Ohio in all government-related matters for a gaming company client. An important recent matter was advocacy in the state’s biennial operating budget bill, Ohio House Bill 33. The operating budget bill is Ohio’s most important policy bill of the two-year session and contains a multitude of provisions that impact the gaming industry. Along with other industry lobbyists, we advocated for or against the inclusion of gaming provisions during the House, Senate, and Conference Committee phases of the legislative process.
• Counseled a client through the rulemaking and licensing processes in the state for the inaugural launch of Ohio’s new sports gaming industry. We worked with the client to successfully submit their licensing application and addressed regulatory questions posed by regulators throughout the submittal and license review process. During the process, we frequently added productive comments and proposed revisions to the state rule package to create a competitive and safe marketplace for operators and customers. The client and its individual licensees received their licenses and were able to open by the universal start date. We continue to provide counsel on regulatory issues for the client.
• Serving as Ohio regulatory counsel for a clean-energy subsidiary of a Fortune 500 corporation in a PUCO Staff investigation.