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BARRISTERS OF THE MONTH: THE HONORABLE MARY E. & DAVID H. MONTGOMERY
The Honorable Mary E. Montgomery & David H. Montgomery Montgomery County Common Pleas Court
Pickrel Schaeffer & Ebeling Co., LPA
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The Dayton Bar Association is fortunate to have so many leaders in its ranks committed to finding opportunities to give back to the community. Whether the contributions be through respectful advocacy, thoughtful counsel on complicated transactions, or investment of time in our youth, we identify such a leader each month to recognize. But in observance of Valentine’s Day, we recognize as Barrister(s) of the Month, a couple that represents the absolute best our community has to offer: David and the Honorable Mary Montgomery.
Mary, even as a child, always knew she wanted to be a lawyer. Growing up, her grandmother had a basement full of books, and Mary loved spending her time in that personal library reading everything she could find. Whether it was To Kill a Mockingbird, or a biography about a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Mary was hooked. David, on the other hand, went to college expecting to have a future in medicine. Enrolled at Miami University studying zoology, David was taking the usual pre-med courses to prep for the MCAT when a friend’s parent asked whether he had ever thought about the law. He gave it some thought, added a history major in his junior year, and sat for the LSAT. Even though he also took the MCAT, he did well enough on the LSAT that he thought a career in law may be more viable than he previously believed. He decided to give it a shot, applied to law school, and has never regretted his decision.
Mary and David first met as students during their time at University of Dayton School of Law. Their first encounters were by happenstance: both of their last names started with “M,” so they often found themselves sitting next to each other in classes that had assigned seating. As days went by, the two shared the same friend groups and became close friends themselves. Both worked hard in school, but Mary distinctly recalls that David would often ask for her notes whenever he “needed” to miss class to see a Bruce Springsteen concert. Mary was happy to share her notes with David, and soon the two would share a life together.
After law school, Mary joined the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, and David joined the law firm of Altick & Corwin, where he worked on municipal law, real estate transactions and a handful of criminal defense matters. In 2000, David joined Pickrel Schaeffer and Ebeling, where he now serves as a shareholder, and was soon thrown headfirst into an unprecedented transactional matter: the development of the Greene Towne Center. After practicing for only a couple of years, David found himself in a matter that would be transformational and challenging for any practitioner due to the number of “firsts” it involved: The Greene would be the first mixed-use development in the area, it would be the first time Greene County had ever made use of public-private funding, and it would be the first ever community entertainment district in the area at a time when only five or six had been developed across the state. The project, to say the least, was ambitious. David was able to help make the project a success by collaborating with engineers, architects, zoning professionals, developers, and the counsel of the interested parties. David credits this experience with teaching him the value in being direct and candid as a lawyer, rather than trying to hide the ball and play cloak and dagger games. He learned that sometimes
Dayton Bar Briefs February 2020 there is a time and place for being guarded,
but more often than not, a straightforward approach will often yield better results. As a result of David’s hard work (and, as David would point out, the hard work of so many others involved in the massive project), the entire community has benefited with a beloved social space.
As David’s transactional practice took off, Mary found herself thriving in the courtroom. For twenty-one years, Mary served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney with the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. She served as a Supervising Attorney at Care House where she prosecuted felony crimes involving physical and sexual abuse of children. She then became Intake Supervisor for the Grand Jury, before she was promoted to Criminal Division Trial Supervisor, where she trained and managed multiple assistant prosecuting attorneys on multiple judges’ criminal dockets. In March, 2014, Mary earned the position of Chief of the Civil Division, where she and her staff reprecontinued on page 7
BARRISTERS OF THE MONTH: The Honorable Mary E. Montgomery & David H. Montgomery continued from page 6
sented the County and all of its departments and agencies, as well as the elected officials, in various administrative and civil matters, including civil defense litigation. Through her work in the Civil Division, Mary had the opportunity to appreciate the challenges unique to civil litigation. Specifically, Mary recalls how she and David would joke about how, prior to her work in the Civil Division, she never quite appreciated the experience of getting calls from clients at 4pm on a Friday with some dire emergency.
Mary also recalls that serving in the Prosecutor’s Office gave her the opportunity to learn from the judge whose docket she spent the most time: Judge Dennis Langer. “Judge Langer was an inspiration for me, because you knew what to expect with him and you knew he expected nothing short of excellence from the attorneys before him. It forced me to anticipate issues in the matter I was working, and if we did not have answers for him, we would need to research and brief it. He made me a better attorney,” Mary recalled. She also learned the value of professionalism during her time in the Prosecutor’s Office. Often, Mary would be trying cases against some of the most diligent and talented defense lawyers in the community, and although trials could be intense, she learned that civility, above all else, is critical. Mary explained that “it was refreshing in many ways to see that in Dayton we could both advocate to the absolute best of our ability in really heated cases, but afterwards share laughs in the hallway and know our advocacy in the courtroom was never personal.”
Last year, Mary transitioned to her new role of service to the community: the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Bench. Sworn in last July, Mary has looked to Judge Langer’s David and Mary photographed with their children, Lily (11), Madeline (10), and William (5).
example as she builds her own judicial career. She explained that what she “liked most about Judge Langer was that he was very smart, thoughtful, and calm. That’s what I try to emulate. So it has been a constant exercise in developing patience to work with people where they are.” As a result, Judge Montgomery encourages the attorneys in front of her to be direct and forthcoming about what they need from the Court to be able to try their case: “I respect and appreciate that for attorneys, life happens. So If we need to start a hearing an hour later because you have an emergency, or we need to end trial for the day by 5pm sharp so you can pick your children up from day care, let me know. We can find ways to work with you and accommodate. We have to be mindful. Life outside work exists, and we need to maintain a workable balance.”
When it comes to sorting out schedules, the Montgomery’s are masters by necessity. Mary and David agree that the biggest challenge with being married to a lawyer is definitely scheduling. “Every week,” Mary explained, “David and I sit down at the table and plan out the week as if it is a Battleship game trying to account for any gap in our calendars. It is so important that we do this so that all of our kids are picked up on time, fed, and taken care of and so that we do not let our professional responsibilities fall through the cracks.” Mary and David certainly have enough to keep them busy. “Not only are we involved in a number of causes we care about, but in my practice I often have to attend zoning and community meetings that may not start until six or seven o’clock at night. When I first started practicing, I felt like I should bring the meeting minutes home just because it was so unbelievable that I was coming home at 1am,” David joked. But the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Both Mary and David agreed that when either one comes home after a long day, the other is able to completely empathize without need of explanation. Because both are smart and creative lawyers, they have been able to serve as one another’s “in house counsel” when someone needs to bounce around an idea or talk through a nuanced issue.
Giving back to the community has been an essential stewardship for the Montgomery’s. Shortly after getting married, both joined the Associates Board for the Dayton Art Institute. Although they were the youngest members of that board, they made the most of the opportunity get to know and work with some of our community’s leaders. Through this process, they learned how to give back. Since then, David has been active on the Miami Valley School Alumni Council, as a founding member, and where he has served as President for multiple years and help coach his daughter’s soccer team, while Mary has served as an Oakwood United Soccer Club Team Manager and a Girl Scout Troop Leader. Recently, she even spearheaded a grassroots effort to establish a new public park in the City of Oakwood, assisting with both the design and funding for what is now known as Cook Park.
Perhaps the biggest contribution Mary and David have made to the community is their three wonderful children: Lily (11), Madeline (10), and William (5). David remarked that, as parents, he and Mary try to set rules and boundaries as best they can, but they still get a kick out of seeing their kids respond by exposing the logical fallacies in a given rule and putting forth their own counter-arguments. Lily, Madeline, and William have incredible role models to look up to at home, and as members of the Dayton Bar, Mary and David serve as powerful role models for us as well.
By Zachary S. Heck Co-Chair DBA Editorial Board, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
