Terrence O'Donnell

Terrence O'Donnell leads Dickinson Wright’s firm-wide Government Relations team and brings over 20 years of experience to his public policy practice. His focus is advocacy at the Ohio statehouse, administrative law, and regulatory compliance. He represents dozens of companies, trade groups, and nonprofits before the state's General Assembly and executive agencies. He also collaborates with lawyers in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office to lobby the United States Congress. 

He regularly leads and works in large stakeholder coalitions, where he brings a substantive focus to a diverse array of complex public policy challenges. He represents all manner of business interests, including the renewable energy industry, a major national brewer with an Ohio manufacturing facility, an international social media platform, the state’s largest self-insured workers compensation provider, and the Association for Career-Technical Education. Born and raised on Cleveland's west side, he represents a number of Northeast Ohio clients, including the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, the Ohio Aerospace Institute, St. Edward High School and a public private partnership developing an offshore wind project in Lake Erie.

Terrence practices election law as well, serving as outside counsel to the Ohio Secretary of State in appellate litigation.  He also represents the Ohio Chamber of Commerce as amicus curiae before the Ohio Supreme Court. 

Terrence collaborates closely with his colleagues to assist energy companies on permitting and other regulatory matters at the Ohio Power Siting Board, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, as well as at the local level.

He serves on the board of Rev1 Ventures, a unique Columbus-based investor “startup studio” that helps Ohio startups scale by providing funding and other business services.  He is a board member of the state bar association’s Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer Legacy Committee and an active member of the Notre Dame Club of Columbus.

Terrence and his wife Jill reside in Bexley, Ohio, with their three children.