Dylan Reingold, who was county attorney for 10 years before he resigned in 2023, is back in town building a real estate law practice for a Jacksonville firm.
Reingold put down his briefcase the year he turned 50 to go mountain climbing and pursue other adventures. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and then surmounted to Mount Everest Base Camp, training intensely for both ascents on Vero’s bridges with weighted packs, and in the Santa Fe Mountains and forests of Northern New Mexico.
But after a colorful year of adventure that included trekking through Africa and Asia, he felt a pull to return to the practice of law.
In the summer of 2024, he was recruited by a former colleague to take the Deputy General Counsel post in the City of Jacksonville.
“I started that probably about two weeks after I got back from Nepal, being the attorney for the Land Use and Zoning Committee,” Reingold said. “I had worked in the City of Jacksonville’s General Counsel’s Office for more than eight years before I took the county attorney job here.”
Living three hours away from their residence in Indian River Shores, Feingold and his wife Heather “thought about selling our house. We thought about renting our house. We were just trying to figure out what to do,” Reingold said.
“About a year ago, we were back in Vero and realized how much we missed it. We thought going to Jacksonville was going to be this homecoming and we were excited about that, but it really made us realize how much we missed being here,” Reingold told Vero Beach 32963 after moving back at the end of July.
“Sometimes it takes going away to realize how much you appreciate it,” he said.
The opportunity to return to Indian River County arose from a plan hatched with longtime friend and mentor, attorney Steve Diebenow, a partner with the Jacksonville law firm Driver McAfee Hawthorne Diebenow.
He suggested that Reingold sign on with the firm as a partner with the intent to develop a client base in the greater Vero Beach area, then perhaps into fast-growing St. Lucie and Martin counties as well.
“I was literally picking Steve’s brain and the next thing I know we’re having a conversation about me joining the firm,” Reingold said.
He worked for two months out of Driver McAfee’s Jacksonville office to learn the systems, the support staff and the two dozen fellow attorneys he can call on as a resource or refer business to that’s out of his area of expertise.
“We’ve got a corporate team, and then we have the land use zoning and government affairs group. I knew the local government folks very well, but I didn’t necessarily know the real estate and corporate folks as much,” Reingold said. “So those two months were great to get to know them face to face.”
Reingold, now 53, will focus on zoning and land use law in Indian River County. He has been meeting with elected officials, county staffers and those in the know about what’s on the horizon for Indian River County in terms of development.
“We don’t have any litigators,” Reingold said of his new firm. “We are a group focused on putting deals and transactions together, doing incentive deals, land use and zoning, quasi-judicial matters and the like. What we don’t do is go to court.”
“Our goal is to always be involved in putting a deal together and getting the deal done right. Litigation only happens if things go wrong,” he said.
If a matter is headed to court, Reingold would politely recommend another lawyer.
To start, Reingold will work from his home-based office, but if his caseload and project list outgrow that space, he’ll hang out a shingle in town.
“The idea is to follow the growth organically. When we get to the point where I need to hire an associate or office staff, I think that’s when the conversation will start about opening an office,” Reingold said. “Right now my goal is to build the Driver McAfee brand here in Indian River County so the firm can expand geographically.”
“My experiences with him were always positive and professional,” said attorney and mediator Paul Westcott, who performed outside legal work for the county government during Reingold’s tenure as county attorney. “I found Dylan to be a creative, ethical and grounded legal partner in all the areas in which I assisted the county,” said Westcott, who now is an elected member of the Indian River County Hospital District board of trustees.
“I’m glad to hear that he’s back,” Westcott added. “Dylan’s background and experience in government-related legal activities will help him serve the community well. With the growth pressures that we’re experiencing, there’s likely going to be increased demand for help in sorting out the land use and zoning issues that arise.”
Westcott noted that Reingold brings a slightly different skill set to the practice of real estate law than most lawyers.
Before attending the University of Florida Levin School of Law, Reingold earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from George Washington University and a master’s degree in marine biology and biological oceanography from the Florida Institute of Technology, giving him inside knowledge of the language of the environmental regulators.
He also has experience dealing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Johns River Water Management District, Florida Inland Navigation District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Dylan’s education and experience will definitely give him a unique advantage as the need to protect the lagoon creates greater complications with development in terms of runoff and water management,” Westcott said. “His professional relationships should be a tremendous asset in our community.”
Photos by Joshua Kodis
