Joshua Sanders

Practice Areas

Federal Government Contract and Agency Regulation

Government Relations and Legislation

State Government Relations and Policy

Public Law

Career

As a lawyer and a registered lobbyist, Josh Sanders has spent many years involved in the practice of Government Relations, bringing more than 20 years of valuable experience on a variety of complex issues to his clients across a number of unique industries.

Josh, a Partner and Co-Chair of Calfee's Government Relations and Legislation practice group, works on legislative, agency and executive projects for a number of Fortune 500 companies as well as emerging bio-tech. His experience is varied, from working with the Department of Commerce to obtain liquor permits to the obtainment of funds to complex state revisions in the state budget.

Josh has extensive legislative experience in the areas of alcohol, tobacco, transportation, gaming, pharmaceuticals, bio-tech, construction, energy, labor, telecommunications and education.

Josh also has directed a number of grass-roots projects aimed at both state and federal elected officials while also working directly on campaigns for numerous candidates.

Josh lobbied throughout the Midwest for both the largest smokeless tobacco manufacturer and the world’s leading premium drinks business. This combination of state government knowledge and corporate culture understanding allows Josh to produce results for his clients.

Josh started his career as a Legislative Service Commission Fellow learning the ways of the Ohio Senate. He then furthered his state government knowledge as a legislative liaison for the Ohio Department of Commerce. This firsthand experience allows Josh to help his clients navigate the complexities and hurdles found in the legislative and agency arenas.

Josh also brings an in-depth understanding of the needs and responsibilities of his corporate clients in the government relations field and especially to those handling a multi-state region.

He has been a presenter at the Crain’s Cleveland Business Breakfast Series as well as at the Ohio State Bar Association’s Leadership Academy. Josh has also presented at the International Council of Shopping Centers Retail Development & Law Symposium.

Josh serves as chair of the Calfee Jewish Lawyers affinity group, and he is a member of the firm's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group. Josh joined Calfee in February 2011 and was elected Partner in 2013. He began serving as Vice Chair of the Government Relations and Legislation practice group in 2020.

Professional Memberships

Ohio State Bar Association Liquor and Gaming Law Committee

Supreme Court of Ohio Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Program

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Mentorship Program

Ohio Lobbying Association, President

Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, Board of Directors

Values in Action, Board of Directors

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Ohio

Experience

Serving an American real estate technology company as the client’s representative in Ohio in all government-related matters. We are assisting the client in obtaining an amendment to the state’s operating budget bill to prohibit certain predatory right-to-list sales agreements. As part of the larger realty industry, the client advocated for laws to prohibit right-to-list sales agreements where the agreement runs with the land or otherwise purports to bind future owners or the agreement purports to be a lien, encumbrance, or other security interest. We also kept the client abreast of developments and assisted in their participation in legislative hearings and interested party meetings and facilitated one-on-one meetings with legislative sponsors on bills of interest.

Provided ongoing government relations services to an Ohio university for more than 20 years and currently serving as the client’s representative in the state in all government-related matters. We recently helped the client maintain several million dollars in direct state funding for the client’s medical school during state budget negotiations. We have closely monitored and advised the client on proposed state legislation regarding the teaching of “divisive concepts” and diversity in education and successfully helped ensure that the legislation will not apply to private, nonprofit universities.

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.

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.

Provided ongoing government relations services to a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company for more than a decade. We serve as the client’s representative in Ohio in all government-related matters. Our most recent significant assignment was to obtain an amendment to the state’s biennial operating budget bill to eliminate current law that authorized HIV testing only if necessary to provide diagnosis and treatment of an individual and instead authorize testing if the individual or their parent or guardian have given general consent for care and been notified that a test is planned. We worked to obtain a sponsor for the amendment and conducted a legislative education campaign to obtain inclusion in the bill and to ensure the amendment was maintained in the bill during the conference committee process. The change was included in the recently passed bill and brings the state into compliance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for HIV testing.

Provided ongoing government relations services to a multinational alcoholic beverage company for more than a decade. We serve as the client’s representative in Ohio in all government-related matters. A key recent initiative was the passage of two provisions in the state’s operating budget bill that are beneficial to the client’s business, including lowering the cost to obtain a liquor permit to provide samples to customers and codifying a provision of law that creates an expedited process for a permit holder to expand their permitted business premise. The client anticipates that these provisions will expand sales in the state. We helped the client prepare testimony and supporting materials, meet with legislators, and work with interested parties as the bill progressed to passage. We also are working with the client to introduce standalone legislation to address an existing tax disparity in state law for similar alcoholic beverages.

Serving as a trade coalition client’s representative in Ohio in all government-related matters. A key recent initiative was the introduction of House Bill 203 to set a time limit on when private owners must submit payment to general contractors, mirroring current law for public projects' “timely pay” legislation. As there is no law on this issue currently, private owners’ failure to pay general contractors in turn delays payment to our client, the subcontractors, in essence making subcontractors unwilling financiers of private construction projects. We have helped the client develop the legislation, secure legislative sponsors, prepare testimony and supporting materials, meet with legislators, and work with interested parties as the bill progresses through the General Assembly.

Advocating for a delivery company for a revision to the application of the state’s sales tax to purchases made using online marketplace sellers. Current state law requires all online marketplace sellers to collect and remit sales taxes, a system that often results in both the client, a grocery delivery service, and its participating retailers collecting and remitting sales tax on the same order. The revision would end double taxation. We have secured support for the revision from industry players as well as the state Department of Taxation. We have obtained legislative sponsors in both the House and Senate for a standalone bill to be introduced in the fall. We also started a larger legislative education campaign as part of the operating budget bill process, as the Senate sponsor was interested in placing the revision in the budget despite it being late in the budget process.

Serving as the representative in Ohio in all government-related matters for an East Coast healthcare consulting company. A key recent initiative involved maintaining inclusion in the state’s operating budget bill, the largest policy bill of the two-year session, of a provision to require the Ohio Department of Medicaid to obtain a third-party contractor to help streamline redetermination of member eligibility decisions following the conclusion of the public health emergency. We also worked with the client to obtain a provision in the budget to both increase the Medicaid reimbursement rates for emergency medical service providers on a going-forward basis as well as a supplemental payment program to help reimburse past underpayments to those same providers.

Education