Cozen O'Connor has hired two Pittsburgh litigators as counsel, each with ties to some big-name businesses.

Laura Reinhart, who was a member at Pittsburgh-based midsize firm Burns White, represents railroad companies including Union Pacific and CSX Transportation. At Cozen O'Connor, she said, “we hope to develop” those same client relationships.

“The railroads are changing, like the legal landscape, and I think Cozen is prepared to meet all of their needs,” Reinhart said.

Gary Kelly was general counsel at General Nutrition Corp., better known as GNC, for almost 20 years. He stepped down from that position in March of last year, continuing as a consultant to the business, until joining Cozen O'Connor this month.

Kelly said he worked with Cozen O'Connor for over a decade during his time at GNC, and the firm had recently taken on the role of national litigation counsel for the company. He said he left his position at GNC because the demands of the job were more than he wanted to continue to take on, from a work-life balance perspective.

“I wanted to be able to spend some time doing something other than answering the phone at 11:30 at night,” Kelly, a grandfather to two young children, said.

Reinhart started her career as an associate at Burns White. She left the firm after a little over a year to start a new firm along with her husband, Andrew Reinhart. That firm went through a couple of name changes over the years that followed, and was most recently known as Reinhart Sanchez when the Reinharts joined Burns White in 2017.

Andrew Reinhart remains at Burns White.

While she intends to develop her existing relationships in the railroad and transportation industries into client relationships at Cozen O'Connor, Reinhart said she is also interested in broadening her practice.

“At Burns White I was doing just railroad litigation. I would like to expand that,” she said.

David B. White, an executive committee member at Burns White, said in an emailed statement: “Laura was a valuable member of our team, and we are sorry to see her go. We wish her well in her new endeavor.”

Cozen O'Connor has grown quickly in Pittsburgh since opening its office there in 2017. The office currently houses 29 lawyers, according to the firm's website. Reinhart and Kelly both cited longtime relationships with lawyers in the firm's Pittsburgh location, including Tom and Gene Giotto, who were among the Pittsburgh office founders. Both said they were attracted to the firm in part by how it has established a foothold in the Pittsburgh legal community since 2017.

“The caliber of the folks, the Pittsburgh lawyers they chose to open this office, it makes sense,” Kelly said. “They're the kind of folks that I would have expected.”

Reinhart added, “It's a wonderful place to come to. Everybody is excited about what they're doing and generating great work product.”

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