Daniel K. Wright, II

Daniel K. Wright, II is a member of the Business Department of Tucker Ellis LLP, resident in its Cleveland office. He is a nationally recognized transactional lawyer with major clients around the country. With over 30 years of experience in business, real estate, leasing, and financing transactions, he is frequently involved in large, complex, high-profile matters, and adds significant depth to our practice.

Known as a strategic thinker, Dan is highly regarded for his ability to structure complex commercial transactions with multiple parties. He is a nationally recognized authority on the development of shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and urban mixed-use projects, and frequently lectures at national and regional conferences on such topics.

Mr. Wright has been selected six times as a “Leading Lawyer”, a ranking of the top one percent of attorneys in Northeast Ohio, and four times as an “Ohio Super Lawyer”, a listing of the top five percent of attorneys in Ohio.

Areas of Practice

Mr. Wright’s areas of expertise include real estate development and finance; all types of leasing, including department store and other anchor tenant leasing as well as the renewal, renegotiation and restructuring of leases; bankruptcy/insolvency proceedings, debt restructuring and workouts; joint ventures; acquisitions, dispositions, and exchanges; design and construction, zoning and land use planning; tax increment financing; public-private partnerships; oil and gas law; environmental mitigation and remediation; lobbying and crisis communications; property management and operations; and related litigation. 

Mr. Wright frequently lobbies Federal, state, and local officials on behalf of individual clients and industry groups, and regularly represents clients before government boards and agencies. He recently authored two amendments to the Ohio statutes governing port authorities, which serve as the key economic development agencies in the State of Ohio.

Professional Involvement

Mr. Wright is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and is now serving his second three-year term on the ICSC’s prestigious Law Committee, which is composed of thirteen nationally-prominent real estate lawyers with significant experience in the shopping center industry who advise the ICSC on legal matters of interest to its membership, including evaluation of the many requests that ICSC receives to appear as amicus curiae in pending litigation across the United States each year. 

He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Shopping Center Legal Update, the legal journal of the shopping center industry, which is published by ICSC three times per year and distributed to its 65,000 members worldwide. Mr. Wright co-authored three chapters in Law for Non-Lawyers, a textbook published by ICSC for its professional development program.

Dan has been a member of the Planning Committee of the ICSC’s Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania Retail Development & Law Symposium since 1996, and served as its chairperson in 2002-3.

Charitable and Civic Involvement

Mr. Wright has a long record of service to the community, and has served on numerous civic and charitable boards. In 1997, he was elected President of the Board of Governors of the Summit County Educational Service (formerly the Summit County Board of Education). Over an eight year period, he served on five lay study committees appointed by the Hudson (Ohio) Board of Education.   Mr. Wright has a particular interest in literacy programs, and in 1995 organized a broad-based community partnership to assist children with different learning styles and reading disabilities that drew upon resources available at two internationally known local institutions, Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He was elected Treasurer of the Northern Ohio Branch of the International Dyslexia Association in 1996 and served on its Board of Trustees from 1994 - 1998, as well as its nominating, facilities planning, and legislative subcommittees.

In 1998, Mr. Wright chaired the Strategic Planning Committee of Seton Catholic School in Hudson, Ohio and helped raise funds for, design, and supervise construction of a major renovation of the school’s facilities. He has also been active on the Finance Council of St. Mary Church in Hudson, Ohio, and recently served as its chairman.

Civic & Professional Involvement

American Bar Association
Ohio State Bar Association
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
International Council of Shopping Centers
   Member (1996-present)
   Law Committee (2002-2005, 2010-present)
Shopping Center Legal Update
   Editorial Board
Urban Land Institute
 

Full Bio