Benesch welcomes associate Holly F. Gross to the firm’s Government Relations Practice Group in Columbus, where she will advocate for clients before various levels of government on issues of public concern. She is also specializing in non-profit law.
“Holly has nearly ten years of experience in legal and government relations roles, serving most recently as Vice President, Government Relations for the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.” said Gregg Eisenberg, Managing Partner and Executive Committee Member. “In this role, Holly was responsible for leading the ongoing strategic planning for the Chamber’s legislative and executive branch advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal levels of government and she also served as in-house counsel on matters including contract management and regulatory compliance.”
Holly has worked in numerous state legislative and regulatory subject areas including tax and regulatory reform, labor and employment, education and workforce, transportation and logistics, and more. She has vast experience securing funding for community non-profit organizations as part of the state biennial Capital Budget, and in the last General Assembly, obtained full legislative approval for a multi-million-dollar state loan for a for-profit start-up company in the Columbus region. She has successfully lobbied for a gubernatorial veto to prevent enactment of legislation that would have imposed increased and unreasonable regulations upon IT companies doing business with the state of Ohio.
Recently, Holly lobbied the City of Columbus to create, and later expand, the COVID-19 Small Business Response and Recovery Fund to help more businesses qualify for support. She has amended local legislation to better serve businesses on a wide variety of matters including wage and hour disputes, energy benchmarking, sign regulations, tax incentives, refuse collection, and marijuana reform.
Holly received her J.D. from Capital University School of Law and her B.A. in Sociology at The Ohio State University. Holly is also an adjunct professor at Capital University Law School specializing in Legislation.
Holly is one of over 20 new attorneys to join Benesch so far this year. Since making its debut on the AmLaw 200 list in 2016, Benesch has advanced 27 places and is currently ranked at number 168.