2018 May/June Ohio Lawyer

THE OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION MEMBER MAGAZINE

May/June 2018

VOL. 32, NO. 3 www.ohiobar.org

MUDDIED WATERS:

WHEN DOES A STREAM OF BENEFITS BECOME A RIVER OF BRIBES?

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Table of Contents 4

President's Perspective

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Foundation News

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Muddied Waters: When Does a Stream of Benefits Become a River of Bribes?

by OSBA President Randall Comer Farewell and New Beginnings: Commencement Season at the OSBA.

OSBF welcomes 2018 Fellows.

By Justin Burns, Michael Crites and William Hunt Examining the uncertainties in defending and prosecuting honest services fraud cases.

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LLI: Inspiring and preparing for professional success

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Law & Media

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Legal Leaders

Websites, books and apps for the legal profession.

In memoriam, awards and community involvement of OSBA members.

OHIO CHAPTER Check preferred available dates or schedule appointments online directly with Ohio’s Top-Rated Neutrals This service is free, funded by our Ohio members

by Connor Semple Two Law and Leadership Institute graduates reflect on their experiences with this unique academic program.

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Beyond the Courtroom – Ricky Volante and the Historical Basketball League

by Zoe Legato An OSBA member shares what led to the creation of a revolutionary basketball league.

Ohio Lawyer Staff Director of Marketing and Communications: Cynthia Kincaid Editor: Andrew Hartzell Graphic Designer: Laura Donovan Website Editor: Dan Beckley

OSBA Officers President: Randall M. Comer President-elect: Robin Weaver, Cleveland Executive Director: Mary Amos Augsburger

Advertising Sales and Editorial Offices Ohio State Bar Association P.O. Box 16562 Columbus, Ohio 43216-6562 (800) 282-6556; (614) 487-2050 Advertising: advertising@ohiobar.org Editorial: ncorbut@ohiobar.org Printing: Hopkins Printing

Content Advisory Board Judge David Hejmanowski, Chair, Delaware Bradley Adams, DeGraff Carly Edelstein, Columbus Alicia Graves, Cleveland Paul Hervey, Canton Chris Hollon, Dayton

Angelica Jarmusz, Columbus Joe Ludovici, Chester, W.Va. Christina Spencer, Dayton Judge James Stevenson, Sidney Scott Sugarman, Bexley

OHIO LAWYER MARCH/APRIL 2018

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Table of Contents CLE Calendar

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Browse our upcoming Live CLE courses.

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What employers need to know about Ohio’s use of force selfdefense and firearms

By Derek A. DeBrosse

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In My Opinion: Indigent Representation in Rural Communities

By Dianna Howe Find out how Southern Ohio Legal Services is helping to provide legal aid in small communities.

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Statehouse Connection

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Situational Awareness and Surviving an Attack

Take a look at this often misunderstood area of the law.

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The Movement

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Member Profile

Here's how the OSBA helps improve and advance the legal profession.

Meet OSBA member David Roper.

SHIFT YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS

by Todd Book Fifty Shades of the OSBA.

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Editorial Offices

Ohio Lawyer (issn 1097-6493) is published bimonthly by the Ohio State Bar Association, P.O. Box 16562, Columbus, Ohio 43216-6562. Phone: (800) 2826556 or (614) 487-2050. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio and additional offices. Ten dollars of dues pays your required subscription to Ohio Lawyer.

Ohio Lawyer is published as a service to members of the Ohio State Bar Association through their dues and is not available to nonmember attorneys. Governmental agencies and educational and legal research organizations may subscribe annually for $35. Single copies to members and qualified subscribers are $7. ©Copyright 2018 by the Ohio State Bar Association.

All rights reserved. Any copying of materials herein, in whole or in part, and by any means, without

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written permission, is prohibited. Requests for reprint permission should be sent to the Ohio Lawyer editorial offices.

Editor reserves the right to reject any advertising submitted for publication. While advertising copy is reviewed, no endorsement of any product or service offered by any advertisement is intended or implied by publication in Ohio Lawyer. Statements or expressions of opinion herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Ohio State Bar Association, its officers, staff or the board of editors.

Ohio Lawyer is published bimonthly by the Ohio State Bar Association.

Artwork Credits

©Shutterstock.com/g/Bart+Sadowski: Cover, 1 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Michael+Shake: 2 ©Shutterstock.com/g/studiostoks: 2, 28 ©Shutterstock.com/g/dovla982: 2, 28 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Jacob_09: 5 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Boy_Phawat: 8 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Aerodim: 11 ©Heather Creed: 12 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Jacob+Lund: 16 ©Historical Basketball League: 16 ©Shutterstock.com/g/4+PM+production: 18 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Andrey+Suslov: 19 ©Shutterstock.com/g/grublee: 21 ©Shutterstock.com/g/JPDurkin: 22 ©Shutterstock.com/g/MaxyM: 24 ©Shutterstock.com/g/Zoom+Team: 25 ©Shutterstock.com/g/elenabsl: 26 ©Laura Donovan: 30, 31 ©Shutterstock.com/g/f11photo: Back Cover

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Farewell and New Beginnings: Commencement Season at the OSBA Cue the “Pomp and Circumstance!”

It’s finally spring in Ohio and that means graduation season. Even though we often look at commencement as an ending — the realization (when all goes well) of an academic goal — we intentionally use the word “commencement” to describe these ceremonies because we are celebrating a new beginning. The focus is, and should be, on the future, not the past.

It is in that spirit that I pen this — my last column as President of the Ohio State Bar Association. In early July, I will pass the gavel to my friend and our President-Elect Robin Weaver. I have great confidence that he, along with our CEO and Executive Director Mary Augsburger and her staff, will carry on the good work done by so many to move this Association forward.

At the outset of my term, my goal was to make sure that amid this economic, cultural and technological sea change, the OSBA remains that safe harbor where Ohio lawyers and legal professionals can get the support they need. In fact, that was the focus of the OSBA Futures Commission.

Comprised of a diverse group of lawyers from around the state, the Futures Commission looked at the current legal landscape and proposed recommendations for what the OSBA can do to better support our new lawyers; to address the influx of new service delivery models, including online legal service providers; to ensure we get the most out of our CLE requirements; and to help in closing the access to justice gap. The report was adopted by

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

the Council of Delegates in October and we have made excellent progress in implementing the recommendations.

Rural Practice Initiative also recently got a boost thanks to a $40,000 grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation.

For example, I was pleased recently to travel to Washington, D.C. as part of an OSBA delegation, along with representatives from the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation (OLAF), to advocate once again for continued support for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). LSC provides approximately one-third of the funding for legal aid programs across Ohio and on this front, we have good news. In the most recent budget compromise for FY2018, Congress appropriated an additional $25 million – the highest level of funding since 2010, and a far cry from initial proposals to completely defund the agency. We are also working with OLAF and other partners on a new legal portal designed to help close the access to justice gap in Ohio by connecting consumers with counsel, whether it be via legal aid for those who meet the income requirements, or to the practicing bar for those who can afford to hire an attorney.

At the Supreme Court CLE Commission, we’ve been advocating for CLE rule changes (also in the Futures Commission report), including allowing for shorter formats (15/30-minute programs) to give lawyers more flexibility; more options for skills based training; reinstating a substance abuse requirement as Ohio continues to grapple with the opiates epidemic; and putting increased emphasis on technology training.

Also, as outlined in the Futures Commission Report, we bent Congress’ ear regarding continuation of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and expressed concerns with the caps on borrowing being proposed in the House version of the Higher Education ReAuthorization Act, which would have a detrimental impact on potential law students and their ability to pay for law school. In addition, our efforts to place new lawyers in underserved areas via our

In addition to our outward advocacy efforts, which have always been central to this organization, we have our eye securely on the ball as it relates to the continued health and success of the Association itself. This is critical as we (and Associations everywhere) are facing significant challenges, particularly as it relates to attracting and retaining members.

Though the OSBA continues to enlist a significant percentage of all Ohio lawyers, the fact is that there are fewer lawyers to attract. While there was a slight increase in 1Ls for 2017 over the previous year, we are seeing historic lows in law school enrollment and bar passage rates are down. On the other end of the spectrum, Baby Boomers are beginning to retire. I saw data recently where 37 percent of current practitioners who responded to the survey said that they expected to be retiring, working part time, or scaling back toward retirement in the next five years.

Ben Franklin (with whom I share a birthday) once said “Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.” Our challenges may seem daunting, but we know that we must adapt and that we cannot afford to continue the status quo.

With the support of the Council of Delegates, we took an important first step in adopting a new dues model for 2019 to better respond to the needs of our changing membership. And, this summer, we are launching a new website — the Digital Engagement Platform (DEP) — to make it easier for you to find the OSBA resources you need, and for us to customize our communications so that you get the information most relevant to you and your practice.

Moreover, the DEP will provide a more robust member directory making it easier for prospective clients to find our members and the legal assistance they need. The DEP will be more than an updated website. It will allow great connectivity amongst our members, the Association, and, importantly, the public.

We have been reviewing all OSBA programs and services with a critical eye to ensure we are being responsive to what today’s attorneys need and want. One prime example is our annual convention, the All Ohio Legal Forum. This Aug. 22-24 we are holding the convention here in Columbus at the Easton Hilton, as planned, and we hope you will all join us.

Come 2019, we are going to approach this event in a new way. Concerned with a steady decline in attendance and a significant loss of revenue each year, I put together a task force, chaired

by President-Elect Robin Weaver to evaluate this event. The task force — made up of diverse members from around the state — looked at every aspect of it, including member feedback on why they did and didn’t come. We know that the convention has offered quality CLE for those who did attend.

But from those who didn’t, we learned that though you get a lot of CLE for the registration price, the registration fee, plus hotel and travel expenses was more than many are willing (or able) to spend.

Others told us they couldn’t afford three days away from their practices no matter how good the value or how desirable the venue.

It seems that many of the market forces I described earlier are very much at play when it comes to the lack of attendance at our convention. Faced with these realities, our committee ultimately recommended to the Board that we discontinue the August convention. In order to continue to provide all that it offers, we are going to move the annual General Assembly meeting and the awards luncheon to the spring in conjunction with the Council of Delegates meeting. That will all happen on May 10, 2019 (mark your calendars).

Again, we are trying to be more sensitive to members’ schedules and we hope that this change will make participating in all of these important events more convenient for all of you.

To accommodate those who come every year primarily for the CLE, we are planning a brand new, day-long Solo, Small Firm and General Practitioners Institute in June of 2019. Much like the convention, this Institute will offer CLE programming that will appeal to general

practitioners. The OSBA is known for its institutes and this is one we have wanted to do for a long time. Now we can do it at a time and for a price point where we believe more of our membership will take advantage of it. No doubt that these changes will an adjustment for OSBA veterans, but I think in the end, we have an exciting framework and a schedule that will appeal to even more of our membership, and which is much better for the OSBA’s long-term outlook.

As I look back on my term, I am extremely proud of the progress we have made, but — as always is the case with me — I wish that I could have done even more. Nonetheless, I am deeply encouraged by the potential we have to ensure the OSBA remains a vibrant, inclusive, and forward-looking organization that helps its members succeed. Thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity. It’s been one of the great honors of my life.

___ P.S. By the time this column has run, I will have also experienced another one of the great honors of my life — speaking at my alma mater — the University of Cincinnati College of Law Hooding Ceremony. Ironically, while at UC, I was voted most likely to come back and deliver a commencement speech. Yes folks, dreams do come true (although I think my wife and kids would have preferred that I had been named most likely to be a millionaire)!

To my fellow Bearcats and all newlyminted JDs: Congratulations. May you have great success and happiness all your life, and more immediately, may you ace (or simply pass) the bar exam!

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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Foundation News Celebrate the Honorary The Ohio State Bar Foundation is excited to announce that we will be inducting the 2018 Fellows Class and recognizing the new Distinguished Life Fellows when we Celebrate the Honorary on June 12, 2018. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Foundation President Carol Seubert Marx will preside over the program and officially honor these dedicated Fellows.

Our 2018 Fellows join the ranks of a small but elite group of civic-minded attorneys dedicated to advancing the law and building a better justice system. Over the next year, these inductees will embark on a journey to lend their talent to the greater good and will engage in handson volunteer opportunities with Foundation grantees.

For the first time at this event, we will also celebrate our Distinguished Life Fellows who continue to bring our mission to life through their generous monetary contributions.

Although it was not long ago that these attorneys were inducted into the Foundation, these are now the Fellows who have supported us year after year, guiding the Foundation and often serving in a volunteer role.

We are humbled by the dedication of these exceptional attorneys who represent each generation of Fellows and we look forward to honoring them.

To learn more about becoming a Fellow, contact Liz Volpe at (614) 487-4474 or visit our website www. osbf.org.

2018 FELLOWS CLASS

Lauren E. Bartlett

Hannah L. Botkin-Doty

Hon. W. David Branstool

Hon. Kimberly J. Brown

John M. Buchenic

John E. Codrea

Michael L. Corey

Brandon D. Cox

Lisa Carey Dean

Katherine S. Decker

Hon. Glenn H. Derryberry

Jeffrey L. Evans

Tani L. Eyer

Larry S. Hayman

W. Andrew Joseph

Brian J. Laliberte

Luther L. Liggett Jr.

Marley C. Nelson

Hon. Michael J. Newman

Ashley L. Oliker

Lima, OH

Hubbard, OH

Akron, OH

Bucyrus, OH

Columbus, OH

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

Columbus, OH

Peninsula, OH

Toledo, OH

Athens, OH

Powell, OH

Newark, OH

Columbus, OH

Lima, OH

Zanesville, OH

Dayton, OH

Columbus, OH

Cleveland, OH

Richwood, OH

Columbus, OH

Columbus, OH

HONOR. REMEMBER. CELEBRATE. Honor the exceptional, celebrate an occasion and recognize the significant people in your life with a charitable gift to OSBF. Hon. Colleen M. O'Toole Warren, OH

Beryl Brown Piccolantonio

Allison Taller Reich

Columbus, OH

To dedicate your gift, call (614) 487-4477 or visit www.osbf.org and click “Donate Now.”

Cleveland, OH

– IN HONOR OF – Gary F. Frye Colleen E. Cook L. Barry Cors Darrell W. Foell Merry M. Saunders Athens, OH

Sheena Sjostrand-Post

Hon. David N. Stanbury

Pataskala, OH

Newark, OH

Walter (Ted) & Rosemary Walkenhorst Elizabeth E.W. Weinewuth Michael Brandt Joseph W. Hull

– IN MEMORY OF – Barbara Cubbon Susan Hartman Muska

Elizabeth E. W. Weinewuth Cincinnati, OH

Joseph E. Wenger

Erica H. Young

Columbus, OH

Columbus, OH

Fellows not pictured Hamilton DeSaussure, Jr. Hudson, OH

Kenneth R. Goldberg Columbus, OH

CONNECT WITH OSBF

Willard Johnson Reginald S. Jackson, Jr. Gerald R. Leipply Robert Orth

Corinne Hoover Six Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Twitter: @_OSBF_ Facebook: facebook.com/OhioStateBarFoundation LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/ohio-state-bar-foundation

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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MUDDIED WATERS:

WHEN DOES A STREAM OF BENEFITS BECOME A RIVER OF BRIBES?

By Justin Burns, D. Michael Crites and William Hunt

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

While U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s criminal trial drew public interest for its potential political ramifications, it was a federal judge’s mid-trial ruling that should cause pause for those in government office and those working with government officials. The outcome, a mistrial declared when the jury was unable to reach a verdict, underscores the unsettled state of the law, and the uncertainties presented in defending and prosecuting bribery and honest services fraud cases.

Menendez was charged, along with his long-time friend Salomon Melgen, with public corruption offenses, including bribery and honest services fraud. Federal prosecutors framed the pair’s relationship as one built on bribes. Melgen showered Menendez with gifts of private air transportation, exotic vacations, and campaign contributions. In exchange, Menendez was on “retainer” for whenever Melgen needed the senator’s influence in government transactions. Indeed, when Melgen needed Menendez’s influence to pressure federal officials to secure visas for Melgen’s friends, to resolve a port dispute involving one of Melgen’s businesses, and to intervene in a Medicare reimbursement dispute, Menendez acquiesced. Menendez and Melgen, on the other hand, described the relationship as one of mutual friendship that frequently involved lavish gifts with no expectation of repayment.

At worst, Menendez was simply helping a close friend, with his actions rooted in friendship rather than financial gain.

Lavishness aside, the pair’s story is similar to what transpires across the country on a daily basis. Local business executives contribute to a mayoral candidate’s campaign because once elected, the mayor is in a position to act in the executives’ interest. Advocacy groups invest thousands in state and federal election campaigns to ensure access to elected officials when impactful decisions loom. A private citizen might walk in a parade to support a friend

running for office and then call on that friend for help navigating government red tape. While each of these scenarios certainly seems innocuous, courts have struggled to answer the question: When does supporting an elected official’s candidacy or performance in office — a protected right and the bedrock of American democracy — convert into criminal behavior?

Generally speaking, federal bribery statutes criminalize actions built on a “quid pro quo” (“this for that”) exchange, that is, one person offers something of value (the “quid”) in exchange for the government official taking official action (the “quo”). In a rather straightforward example, consider the case of former Moreno Valley, Calif., City Councilman Marcelo Co. Co accepted a multimillion-dollar bribe from an undercover federal agent (the “quid”) in exchange for Co’s promise to convince the City Council to rezone land within the City (the “quo”) — a move that would likely cause property values to skyrocket and benefit the suspected real estate broker.

Clearly, a government official who takes a position solely because of the cash offered to him has converted his power of public office into personal gain by trading cash for votes. Co pleaded guilty to bribery and was sentenced to five years in federal prison.1 The more difficult situation arises when no specific government action is part of the agreement, but rather benefits are conferred upon the public official to retain the official’s services on an “as needed” basis. 2 Consider the case of former Virginia governor Robert McDonnell, who accepted gifts ranging from private air travel, to designer clothing, to personal loans from a Virginia executive. That executive recognized McDonnell’s potential influence once elected, and later sought McDonnell’s assistance in setting up meetings and providing access to state officials to help advance the executive’s company. Although McDonnell accepted many of these benefits without explicitly

agreeing to perform certain actions, questions arose whether the executive bought access to the governor’s power through a stream of gifts and benefits.

McDonnell, who was naturally appreciative of the executive’s support, acquiesced when the executive sought the governor’s help to advance the company’s nutritional supplement. At what point, however, does a constituent’s campaign contributions and personal gifts to an elected official become a bribe when those contributions may not come with the explicit request to act in a specific way? Courts have long recognized that such a conferral over time represents a “stream of benefits” intended to “retain the [government official’s] services on an ‘as needed’ basis[.]”3 Those benefits become corrupt when that “retainer” is paid with “the understanding that when the payor comes calling, the government official will do whatever is asked.”4 In other words, although an official’s actions are certainly corrupt when they are premised on someone else’s payment, as was the case with Co, corruption also results when the official intervenes in reaction to the implied debt owed to his benefactor.

A federal jury convicted McDonnell of bribery, but the Supreme Court vacated the conviction in what many saw as a significant blow to federal prosecutors’ ability to bring charges against public officials. In McDonnell v. United States5, the Supreme Court clarified that the requisite “official act” (the “quo”) for bribery must be “a decision or action on a ‘question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy’” that “involve[s] a formal exercise of governmental power that is similar in nature to a lawsuit before a court, a determination before an agency, or a hearing before a committee.” 6 Furthermore, that official act must be something “specific and focused” that is “pending or ‘may by law be brought’ before a public official.” 7 Many commentators saw this “specific and focused” requirement to mean that the OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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“Elected officials depend on support from their constituents to reach public office, and constituents are often motivated to support candidates for office to advance the constituents’ own private interest. ” stream of benefits theory was no longer viable, in part because the requisite quo in the quid pro quo exchange must be identifiable, specific, and contemplated during the exchange of benefit. Since the quid had to be tied to a specific quo, an implied understanding that an official would intervene “as needed” later on some unknown matter was no longer sufficient.

either recognized the stream of benefits theory or referenced it,10 and the Court’s lack of reference to the theory in McDonnell should allow the theory to remain. Moreover, the McDonnell opinion focused on the types of alleged government actions (the “quos”) comprising the bribery accusations rather than theories of proving an agreement between parties.

Menendez and Melgan seized on the McDonnell decision. The heart of the prosecution’s case was that Melgen showered Menendez with a lavish lifestyle — a lifestyle Menendez likely could not afford himself — and in exchange, Menendez could intervene later in issues as necessary. The problem is that at the time these gifts were conferred, there was no “specific and focused” government action that was “‘pending’ or ‘may be brought’ before a public official,” as the defendants argued McDonnell now required.8 In many respects, the pair would have no idea that Melgen may need assistance with a contract, Medicare, or visa applications when the various gifts were exchanged.

Therefore, McDonnell’s requirement for specific action no longer validated a theory of “stream of benefits,” which at its core, contemplates only a potential for some intervention later rather than any specific intervention at all.

The issue here is much larger than Menendez, Melgen, and McDonnell.

Elected officials depend on support from their constituents to reach public office, and constituents are often motivated to support candidates for office to advance the constituents’ own private interest. Chief Justice John Roberts recognized this relationship in writing the McDonnell opinion: “conscientious public officials arrange meetings for constituents, contact other officials on their behalf, and include them in events all the time.”11 “The basic compact underlying representative government assumes that public officials will hear from their constituents and act appropriately on their concerns.”12 By criminalizing an elected official acting on his constituent’s request, “[o]fficials might wonder whether they could respond to even the most commonplace requests for assistance, and citizens with legitimate concerns might shrink from participating in democratic discourse.” 13 Until additional courts have an opportunity to interpret and apply McDonnell, there remains an open question about when, and to what extent, conferring benefits on some public official becomes criminal when the payor later calls on that official for support.

The court in Menendez rejected the defendants’ argument recognizing that Supreme Court opinions should not be interpreted to overturn wellestablished legal precedent unless those opinions explicitly say so.9 Several circuits and the Supreme Court have

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Although the reach of federal bribery laws and the specificity (if any) required in the quid pro quo exchange is an evolving area of law, one thing is certain: federal prosecutions for bribery and corruption are by no means going away. The nation’s concern for integrity in government dates back to its creation. The Constitution, for example, recognized the potential for bribery by enumerating the offense as a trigger for impeachment in Article II Section 4.

The Framers expressed concerns for local and state judges having a bias toward their local electorates in cases against citizens of other states, and the initial proposal for the Constitution included an escape to federal court to avoid that bias.14 Hundreds of federal, state, and local officials have been convicted of some form of corruption, with hundreds of private citizens convicted along with them for their part in influencing government decisions.15 Indeed, a special “Public Integrity Section” within the Department of Justice was established to “consolidate in one unit of the Criminal Division of the Department’s oversight with respect to the prosecution of criminal abuses of the public trust by government officials.” 16 Officials at all levels of government — from federal law enforcement officials17, to state court judges18 , to a former state governor19, to local mayors20 — have been held accountable. The problem, of course, is with the evolving nature of federal bribery law. Does an uncertain standard permit prosecutors to cast too wide a net and will undeserving individuals face criminal prosecution before the criminal standard is finally sorted out?

Dinsmore & Shohl LLP has a team of former federal prosecutors, including a former U.S. Attorney, acting U.S. Attorney, and Assistant U.S. attorneys, former state special prosecutors, former law clerks to federal judges, and experienced litigators to assist clients in navigating this developing area. The group focuses on counseling

Title and representing clients in whitecollar criminal cases, related civil cases, and administrative and regulatory proceedings, and if a matter could jeopardize one’s freedom, subsequent sentencing proceedings as well.

Whether charged with bribery or simply navigating whether legal liability could attach, Dinsmore’s white-collar defense team is ready to counsel and defend in what clearly appears to be an area of unsettled law.

Author Bios

Justin M. Burns is an associate with Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

D. Michael Crites is a partner with Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

William E. Hunt is a partner of counsel with Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

Endnotes 1

Press Release: Former Member of Moreno Valley City Council Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Taking $2.3 Million in Cash Bribe, Department of Justice, available at https://www. justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-member-morenovalley-city-council-sentenced-five-years-federalprison-taking-23 (last accessed Oct. 18, 2017).

2 See, e.g., United States v. Bryant, 655 F.3d 232, 241 (3d Cir. 2011) (“It is enough for the [G]overnment to present evidence that shows a course of conduct of favors and gifts flowing to a public official in exchange for a pattern of official actions favorable to the donor. Thus, payments may be made with the intent to retain the official’s services on an “as needed” basis, so that whenever the opportunity presents itself the official will take specific action on the payor’s behalf.” (emphasis and alteration in original) (quotation omitted)).

3 United States v. Kemp, 500 F. 3d 257 (3d Cir. 2007).

4 United States v. Kincaid-Chauncey, 556 F.3d 923, 943 (9th Cir. 2009).

5 136 S. Ct. 2355 (2016).

6 Id. at 2371–372.

7 Id. 8 U.S. v Menendez, Case No. 2-15-cr-155, (D.N.J. July 18, 2017), Doc. No. 177-1.

9 See Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U.S. 1, 18 (2000) (“This Court does not normally overturn, or so dramatically limit, earlier authority sub silentio.”).

10 Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358, 412–13 (2010) (citing cases from the Second, Third, and Fifth Circuits addressing stream of benefit theories).

11 McDonnell, 136 S. Ct. at 3272.

Id. (emphasis supplied).

Id. 14 The “Virginia Plan,” which was essentially the foundation for the Constitution, provided for invoking federal jurisdiction similar to today’s diversity jurisdiction provisions. Scott R. Haiber, Article: Removing the Bias Against Removal, 53 Cath. U.L. Rev. 609, 613–16 (2004).

15 See Report to Congress on the Activities & Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 2015, available at https://www.justice.gov/criminal/ file/891961/download (last accessed Oct. 18, 2017).

16 Id. 17 Id. at 15 (former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent pleaded guilty to extortion, money laundering, and obstruction of justice while working as undercover agent while investigating company).

18 United States v. Maggio, 862 F.3d 642 (8th Cir. 2017) (affirming conviction of state court judge for accepting campaign contributions in exchange for remitting jury verdict under federal program bribery, 18 U.S.C. § 666).

19 United States v. Edwards, 303 F.3d 606 (5th Cir. 2002) (convictions for former governor of Louisiana, his son, and several associates affirmed for several offenses, including Hobbs Act extortion).

20 United States v. Tucker, 133 F.3d 1208 (9th Cir. 1998) (City of Compton, California mayor, among other things, convicted of Hobbs Act violations for trading monetary payments in exchange for his support on projects, intervention if city council opposed, and a vote on conditional use permits).

12 13

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Title

LLI: Inspiring and preparing for professional success

By Connor Semple

The Law and Leadership Institute (LLI) is a four-year academic program that inspires and prepares high school students from underserved communities for post-secondary and professional success. First launched in 2008 by the Supreme Court of Ohio, LLI has continued to grow over the course of the last decade and is now active in Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

what it was all about, [and] started enjoying it a lot.”

Okolo and Apparicio recently sat down with LLI to reflect on their experiences with the organization. These are some of the highlights from their interviews.

Imokhai: “I chose to stick with LLI because I was having a lot of fun. I felt as though I was learning more and more about the legal field and I knew that it was really going to set me up to succeed in the future. I was having fun with the different school visits, being with my classmates all summer, being able to go out and do internships. I was excited to see what [each] summer brought.”

This fall, Imokhai Okolo and Alexis Apparicio became the first two LLI alumni to begin law school. Okolo studies at the University of Akron College of Law, while Apparicio attends The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

How did you get involved with LLI?

Alexis: “My guidance counselor was the one who actually suggested it to me. I wasn’t very enthusiastic [at first].

It can be difficult to … get motivated to go to class every day in the summer.

But, once I started going, I realized

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

Imokhai: “I found out about [LLI] through my high school principal. He [said], ‘This program is all about being a lawyer. You can learn about the legal field … and it’ll set you up for success.’”

What made you decide to stay involved with LLI for all four years of high school?

Alexis: “I started realizing I had a passion for the law. I was really interested in law and government, and how they were intertwined. I started realizing that I could [make] a career out of this, out of something that I was truly passionate about.”

LLI’s summer curriculum provides students with a diverse set of opportunities that take place both inside and outside of the classroom.

LLI participants attend classes for four to five weeks each summer. These classes are held at local law schools and are taught by law students.

Students begin participating in LLI during the summer before their freshman year of high school. During their first summer in the program, students learn about criminal law by participating in Mock Trial, listening to speakers from the legal field and visiting nearby legal organizations on field trips.

What did you learn from your experience with LLI’s Mock Trial program?

Alexis: “Mock Trial was awesome. I did it in middle school, but doing it with LLI took it to another level. We spent a lot of time … really refining how we presented our opening and closing statements and our crossexamination. We got really competitive.

That’s when I knew that I wanted to stick with LLI, because that experience was so great. I was really proud of myself.

Imokhai: “Mock Trial was one of the greatest things that LLI could have exposed me to. When I first started doing LLI that 9th grade year, I was just so excited … to actually do [Mock Trial] in a court room. It was fun, and I learned that I was actually really good at something. I grew this confidence from doing Mock Trial [and] from public speaking that would set me up to do great things in college.

Had I not participated in LLI, there’s probably not a chance that I would have participated in Mock Trial.”

Second-year LLI students learn about civil law and are placed in internship programs with local law firms during the summer. These internships allow LLI students to gain experience in a professional setting and to be mentored by practicing attorneys.

How did LLI’s summer internship program affect your professional development?

Alexis: I did [an] internship with the Columbus office of Benesch. We got to meet a lot of the attorneys in the office. We also were able to see how firms work on a day-to-day basis. It was really interesting to go out into the field and to see the possibilities. Having attorneys share their space for a week with [us] was amazing.”

Imokhai: “My 10th grade internship was with Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs. It was so awesome. I got to meet with so many different attorneys [and] to work on different projects. One attorney was able to take me out to see a deposition for a malpractice case that he was currently working on. It was really

cool … to see the steps leading up to a trial that I didn’t know anything about.”

During the school year, LLI classes continue to meet on Saturdays, allowing instructors to continue supporting students and helping them build professional skills. LLI fosters a classroom environment that is unique from the traditional high school experience. LLI promotes interactive learning, allowing students to participate in hands-on projects and to engage with one another. LLI’s curriculum is designed to help students improve their writing and public speaking skills, as well as to build their problem-solving ability, analytical thinking and professionalism.

What makes LLI’s curriculum unique?

Alexis: “[LLI] is unlike a lot of other college prep programs. LLI really focuses you on the [legal] field. It really [refines] your writing, your reading comprehension [and]…your professionalism. I think … that’s left out of a lot of college prep programs.

When you’re applying [to] colleges and you’re doing scholarship interviews … you really need those skills. [They] set you apart from a lot of people.”

Imokhai: “LLI is a college prep program, but it’s not your average college prep program. [LLI] hones in on your passions before you even get to college. It lets you find out what you’re interested in in the legal field.

When you have that passion, it makes college so much easier. You go in with a vision, you go in hungry for success and wanting to do everything possible to reach that goal that you have. Being

In its first 10 years,

The Law & Leadership Institute has Watched graduates become leaders on their campuses (NAACP, sororities, mock trial) Cheered graduates as they started careers, graduate degrees and entered law school.

in [LLI] forces you to think about your future, to develop this vision for yourself that you might not think about if you hadn’t been in the program.”

How did you feel about your LLI instructors?

Alexis: “My LLI instructors were amazing. I still keep in touch with them. They’re still rooting for me, which is amazing. They were very helpful … throughout my college career, keeping me focused [and] centered. Having people who [are] invested in me … is a really great feeling.”

Imokhai: I looked up so much to my LLI instructors and they were such great role models. I think students really want to know that someone else is rooting for [them] to succeed, and the fact that the LLI instructors can do that for students is so powerful.

In addition to teaching real-world skills, LLI instructors also support and counsel students throughout the college application process. LLI organizes college visits and offers ACT prep courses for its third-year students. During their fourth year in the program, LLI students focus on building college applications under the guidance of LLI instructors.

How did LLI help you navigate the college application process?

Alexis: “LLI college visits were an opportunity for me to really see where I was going in [the] next chapter of my life. LLI … exposed me to all the opportunities that I had in front of me. When it came time to make that decision on where I was going, I felt

Served more than

1,000

Provided more than

students

of law-based, academically rigorous activities to each student

Achieved

Assisted more than

100%

high school graduation rate

700 hours

90%

of its graduates in matriculating to college

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

13

confident because … I knew what I wanted and what would be the right fit.

Imokhai: “LLI helped so much with the college application process.

They helped me ask teachers and faculty members … about letters of recommendation. They helped me with the ACT. They helped me [with] getting … application materials together [and] researching colleges to figure out what was the best fit for me.

[LLI] really made going to college more realistic for me.”

Did you feel that LLI prepared you to be a successful college student?

Alexis: “LLI really helped [me] keep my focus in college. I understood how to balance my academics and my extracurriculars. My sophomore year, I helped reestablish the NAACP chapter at Ohio University. It had been inactive for about three or four years. I served as president for two years and we did a lot of awesome things. We worked very closely with our university president to meet the demands and the needs of minority students on campus. I also served on the Ohio University Student Senate [and] graduated magna cum laude.”

Imokhai: “I absolutely felt prepared to go to college. I knew I had a support system back home, not just from my family but from the LLI family as well.

I knew that I had learned so many skills in LLI that were going to benefit me going into college. I had grown more confident in who I was. I was confident with my abilities, confident … to succeed academically. All of that, LLI gave me.”

The goal of LLI’s programs is to expose low-income students to professional work environments and to help them attain the skills and education that they will need to contribute to them. By offering underprivileged students career opportunities that they may not have experienced otherwise, LLI promotes diversity in the professional world.

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

Why should the legal community support LLI?

To learn more about LLI, call (614) 485-3503 or visit www. lawandleadership.org.

Alexis: LLI works. That’s the simplest way I can put it. I know that without LLI, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

LLI really helped me … through the relationships that I built. LLI is a transformative experience.

Author Bio

Connor Semple is an intern in the Communications Department at the Ohio State Bar Association.

Imokhai: “The legal community should support LLI because it’s fostering the next generation of lawyers...that is going to go out and be passionate about the job they do, [who are] going to go out and change lives and actually make a difference in our legal community.”

date Save the

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• Ohio State Bar Foundation • Ohio State Bar Association • US District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio

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Beyond the Courtroom – Ricky Volante and the Historical Basketball League

By Zoe Legato

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

“This could be what finally ends the charade of amateurism,” was Ricky Volante’s first thought when Andy Schwarz shared his idea to take down the NCAA in April 2016. Volante is an OSBA member, attorney at Buckley King LPA in Cleveland in its Sports, Entertainment and Media Practice Group, and, as of April 2016, one of the co-founders of a revolutionary basketball organization, the Historical Basketball League (HBL).

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has ruled over college sports for more than 100 years.

Now, the architects behind the HBL are trying to level the playing field.

The HBL is a corporation that works in conjunction with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to professionalize student athletes and give them more opportunities for success.

It will recruit players to attend SWAC, MEAC, CIAA and SIAC conference schools and participate in HBL's club team. While college student transfers are a possibility, the HBL is focused on recruiting high school players similar to other college programs.

The players who choose to be a part of the HBL will be full-fledged students at their respective universities, but will play for the school’s club team as a part of the HBL. This scenario allows schools to keep their varsity teams, but also make additional revenue from the club team that plays for the HBL. It’s a winwin for the athletes and their schools.

But why HBCUs? According to Volante, African-American men make up most college football and men’s basketball rosters, and yet they receive none of the revenue that they bring into the university. By being paid for their efforts, athletes in the HBL will see the impact of their hard work and can use their earnings to support themselves in college and beyond. HBCUs are also ideal because of their position in the NCAA scheme.

Currently, Power 5 Conference schools are favored by the formulas that give out March Madness money. (In 201516, the average SEC school received $41 million, while the SWAC and MEAC schools received an average of $970,000.) However, the HBL would change the game by making HBCUs a driver of revenue.

For Volante, the HBL has become a passion project about social justice and supporting HBCUs. “I immediately recognized the rich history and vibrant campuses that these schools have, both in sports and in the classroom.

Their missions to be more inclusive and provide many young men and women with opportunities that they likely wouldn’t have otherwise also spoke to me,” he says. These reasons will undoubtedly mirror the motivations of investors, players and schools.

Under the current system, the NCAA does not pay college athletes for two reasons: first, because the schools supposedly cannot afford it; and second, because they believe that spectators tune in to watch their favorite “amateur” players and teams. If the athletes were paid six-figure salaries, the audience for college athletics would disappear.

However, the founders of the HBL are convinced otherwise.

“The student athletes are currently forced into an unfair system,” says Volante. “[Student athletes are] likely receiving a subpar education (not to mention only about 55% of those African-American students graduate), and only 1 in 100 will eventually be paid to play professional basketball. [Four percent of college basketball players go on to play professional basketball.]

Meanwhile, coaches’ salaries skyrocket, schools build massive, world-class facilities, and profit perpetually off the name, image and likeness of these players.”

Volante has been asking people for the past five years if they would stop following their favorite teams if the OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

17

players were paid and only one person has ever said they would.

The HBL will bring HBCUs and their star athletes out of the shadows. Schools will compete for the best athletes and pay them between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, plus additional bonuses like the ability to negotiate their own endorsement deals, just like professional athletes. Where top athletes go, the fans will follow.

If players decide to move forward to the NBA Draft, they will remain eligible to play at their university as long as they are still enrolled students. Once they are picked up and put on an NBA team’s active roster, then they are no longer eligible for the HBL, but will keep their academic scholarship at the institution if they choose to complete their degree.

Volante says that they will have a few challenges in their quest to take on the NCAA. They’ve estimated the cost for the first two seasons at a steep $60 million. However, they’ve already brought their first investors on board, including several Silicon Valley executives from major tech companies.

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

They may also face issues with recruiting elite talent from big-name schools like Kentucky, Duke and Kansas, as well as convincing historically conservative schools to take the first leap. However, the decision to make their teams club instead of varsity should position them well to face these challenges.

There are also various legal considerations when putting the HBL into motion that they have kept a sharp eye on. Issues such as whether the HBL will voluntarily recognize a union and Title IX implications if players’ salaries are considered financial aid will be important considerations moving forward.

The HBL is well underway to revolutionize college sports. Volante says that they have already started recruitment for schools, which will likely continue into the summer of 2018. After that, they can begin recruiting players.

As of now, the inaugural tipoff is slated for either Juneteenth 2019 or 2020 with playoffs during Labor Day weekend.

Taking on the NCAA is no easy feat, but Volante and the HBL may have the

recipe to provide student athletes the right alternative. “The NCAA and its members are a fully functioning cartel, and you can only bring down a cartel by litigation, legislation, organization, or competition. We chose to compete,” says Volante.

To learn more about the HBL, check out hbleague.com and follow them on Facebook (The Historical Basketball League) and Twitter (@ hb_league). Be on the lookout for major announcements about the future of the league in the next few months.

Author Bio

Zoe Legato is an intern in the Communications Department at the Ohio State Bar Association.

Law & Media OSBA partners with Tali to bring voice-driven time-tracking to members Cloud computing is a fast-growing technology making its presence felt throughout the business world, and now you can incorporate it into your law practice with Tali, a voice-activated billable hours software.

the data being stored offsite and what the cloud provider is and isn’t allowed to do to it. Lastly, ask any potential cloud service providers for evidence of a third-party security audit to ensure their servers are properly protected.

Tali allows you to use an existing voice assistant (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Cortana) to track billable hours, display them in a web dashboard and syncs with existing billing tools. Tali brings the benefits of cloud computing to legal billing. The software stores your billable hours data in the cloud, allowing access from a plethora of internetcapable devices in many different settings. Users also avoid the headaches and costs associated with on-site server maintenance, as that all is taken care of offsite. OSBA members receive a 10% lifetime discount on Tali, making it worthwhile and viable.

There are also several ways that legal practitioners can protect themselves against digital disasters. You should only enter confidential information into a website that uses SSL encryption (signified by a green lock next to the site’s address) to prevent hackers from intercepting the data you are inputting.

Also ensure that all computers used for your legal practice have a firewall, antivirus protection and the latest security updates to enhance security on your end.

Some attorneys may have concerns and questions about using cloud computing in their legal practice. Why should I trust offsite servers with my clients’ sensitive information? Who owns that information? How do I protect against a hack or other disaster? Is it really a better alternative to on-site servers?

Good cloud computing service providers (like Tali) understand and are sensitive to their customers’ concerns. Make sure any company you are considering allowing to provide you with cloud services has a contingency plan in case of a major problem that affects your data. Ask them how often they back up the data they are storing and how many different off-site servers they have to serve as backup in case something happens to one of them.

It is also crucial to analyze the provider’s privacy policy to see who really owns

Change passwords on all work-related devices frequently and make the passwords strong to deter hackers. It is also probably a good idea to make backups of your cloud-stored data onsite in the event of an issue with your provider. Also, develop contingency plans for any such provider issues – the provider goes out of business, major hack, natural disaster, etc.

Despite the privacy concerns (which can be addressed and mitigated as shown above), cloud computing can provide real benefits to legal practitioners. It allows you to access your data and documents from virtually any internetconnected device, making it easier to do business in more places. Second, it shifts responsibility and costs associated with server maintenance from the lawyer to the cloud service provider, saving lawyers time and money.

OHIO OHIO LAWYER LAWYER MAY/JUNE JAN/FEB 2018 2018

1919

Legal Leaders Akron Robert W. Malone, Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, was the recipient of the 2018 Leadership Akron Lieberth Community Vision Award.

Cincinnati Eric Volz, Frost Brown Todd LLC, is the recipient of the Distinguished Young Alumni Award from RoseHulman.

Dayton Michael Mayer, Faruki Ireland Cox Rhinehart & Dusing PLL, was selected as 2018 Forty Under 40 winner by the Dayton Business Journal.

2016

Robert C. Grisanti; 97, Cleveland, Jan. 29, 2016

Thomas W. Kimmins; 81, Navarre, April 15, 2016 Edwin J. Klag; 101, Wichita, KS, Aug. 16, 2016 Harold E. Friedman; 82, Cleveland, Aug. 23, 2016

2017

Judge Mark Wall; 70, Middletown, Feb. 11, 2017

Jennifer B. Croghan; 47, Powell, Feb. 25, 2017 Gordon C. Greene; 81, Cincinnati, March 14, 2017 Judge Ralph Austin Hill; 92, Milford, March 15, 2017

New Albany

William J. Keating Jr.; 63, Cincinnati, March 29, 2017

Mac Murray & Shuster, was selected to the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms.

Gerald Howard Swedlow; 80, Columbus, April 25, 2017

Steubenville Hon. Michelle Miller, Jefferson County Common Pleas Court, received the Award of Excellence by the Ohio Common Pleas Judge’s Association at a meeting of the Ohio Judicial Conference.

Toledo Katherine S. Decker, Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick, LLP, was nominated by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a candidate for its 2018 Man and Woman of the Year campaign.

In Memoriam 2015

Charles Varley Schwenker; 100, Columbus, Feb. 17, 2015

Theodore W. Jones; 91, Shaker Heights, Oct. 25, 2015

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

Joseph D. Karam; 88, Columbus, April 14, 2017

Sol Mark Glick; 87, Oakmont, PA, April 26, 2017

Richard Scott Davis; 69, Tipp City, May 17, 2017 William Michael Todd; 64, Columbus, June 4, 2017

John Russell Stopa; 64, Worthington, July 7, 2017 Timothy John Melena; 55, Chardon, July 23, 2017 Nancy Jean Flower; 57, Akron, Aug. 16, 2017

Ronald R. Calhoun; 85, Gallipolis, Sept. 7, 2017

Jasper N. Burt; 76, Marion, Oct. 5, 2017 Roberta Kaye Spurgeon; 79, Cleveland Heights, Oct. 11, 2017 David R. Cook; 68, Naples, FL, Nov. 28, 2017

Honorable Barbara Roush Watson; 81, Austin, TX, Nov. 29, 2017

Lee Clarke Davies; 88, Akron, Dec. 14, 2017 G. Michael Curtin; 61, Akron, Dec. 15, 2017

2018

William E. Karnatz Sr.; 80, Westlake, Jan. 1, 2018

Terence E. Scanlon; 72, Elyria, Jan. 2, 2018 Arnold S. Levine; 77, Cincinnati, Jan. 3, 2018

Gerald R. Leipply; 83, Cuyahoga Falls, Jan. 4, 2018 Don E. Fuller; 89, Chillicothe, Jan. 9, 2018

Keith Boger; 62, Delaware, Jan. 12, 2018 Robert W. Higham; 77, Bath, Jan. 13, 2018 Anthony A. Groeber; 77, Columbus, Jan. 21, 2018 Judge Howard S. Zwelling ; 81, Zanesville, Jan. 21, 2018

Raymond J. Dundes; 67, Beavercreek, Jan. 25, 2018

Kenneth G. Rush; 87, Springfield, Jan. 28, 2018 William S. Friedman; 76, Columbus, March 4, 2018 Donald G. Schornak; 89, Jamestown, March 7, 2018 Richard Klein Desmond; 89, Palm City, FL, March 8, 2018

This column is limited to awards and civic duties. The news listed is edited from press releases that are sent to the OSBA. Other submitted member news updates, such as promotions and new positions, are featured on the OSBA website.

To keep up to date with the most recent member news, visit ohiobar.org/ membernews.

To submit an announcement for consideration in Member News, please email it to the editor at membernews@ ohiobar.org.

2018 CLE Calendar

LiveCLE May 21

Storytelling and Persuasion Skills for Lawyers Video Replay Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Webcast

May 23

June 12

Fifty Years of Pat Downs and Suppression Hearings: Terry v. Ohio Turns 50 Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast

June 22

The Code of Kryptonite: Ethical Limitations on Lawyers’ Superpowers Video Replay Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Webcast

Fairfield Regional CLE - OSBA June 13 Succession Planning: Steps to Young Lawyer Connect Successfully Transition Your Practice Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Fairfield Fairfield, Perrysburg, Wooster, Webcast

June 27

Advanced Employment Law Seminar Basics of Estate Administration Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast

All the Litigation Technology You Need but Aren't Using Columbus, Webcast

2018 Medicare and Medicaid Forum Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast

May 24

June 14

June 20

June 1

June 15

June 26

29th Annual Conference on Wealth Transfer Columbus

June 6

Rock N’ Roll Law: The Essentials of Music Copyright Law Through The Eagles’ Career Video Replay Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Webcast

June 8

Taking and Defending Effective Depositions Akron, Columbus, Dayton, Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast

Taking and Defending Effective Depositions Cleveland

June 19

Titles to Real Estate in Ohio Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Dayton, Perrysburg, Webcast

Current Issues Under the Ohio Trust Code Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Perrysburg, Webcast

June 21

Thinking on Your Feet: The Essential Skill of a Trial Lawyer Video Replay Columbus, Cleveland, Fairfield, Webcast

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

21

In My Opinion: Indigent Representation in Rural Communities

by Dianna Howie

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

“I am from a small town.”

Seventeen years ago, this sentence sat prominently at the top of my law school application’s personal statement.

In the paragraphs below, I detailed my experience living in Wadsworth, Ohio, a rural community surrounded by farmland where everyone knew and looked out for one another. I linked the advantages of that upbringing with my goal to pursue a public interest law education. Threaded throughout, I spoke of how the privilege of my insulated, middle-class youth could be harnessed to help those who lacked the equivalent education, family stability and financial resources.

I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Don’t get me wrong. I still maintain that my utterly unearned privilege contrasted against the inequities facing people in poverty is the primary impetus for my legal aid career. After years of advocating for the education rights of kids experiencing homelessness, defending low-income tenants in Columbus, and eventually coordinating the Legal Aid Society of Columbus (LASC) urban pro bono program, I am acutely aware of the vast difference between my own unobstructed path and the persistent structural obstacles looming before the urban poor.

But where I was completely off track 17 years ago, was that my hometown was neither “small” or “rural.” Although it has developed since I left it in the ‘90s, Wadsworth now has about 23,000 residents. Even 30 years ago, we had several fast food restaurants, a K-mart, a grocery store, a motel, a hospital and a solid school system. I have uninterrupted cell phone access when I go home to visit my mom, and Route 76 has always cut neatly through the center of the town, forging a well-maintained track from 71 to 77.

It took me most of my adulthood to figure out how wrong I was. Last year, my LASC pro bono position expanded to include the volunteer program of our sister organization, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (SEOLS). In juxtaposition to LASC’s compact sixcounty service area, SEOLS sprawls across 30 counties, stretching north into Holmes county, east to Steubenville, south along the Ohio River and as far west as Fayette County. With a few small city exceptions, the SEOLS service area is almost entirely comprised of rural communities. For example, the entire county of Meigs — served by our Athens office — has about the same number of people as my “small” hometown. In even starker contrast, all of Vinton County logs fewer than 14,000 people, and some of the “larger” towns like Logan, New Lexington and Gallipolis each have only a few thousand people.

Being poor anywhere is hard. Being poor in isolated, rural communities carries with it additional barriers.

Communities are naturally more dispersed and, in some cases, they lack quality and comprehensive health care, good internet access, affordable transportation and, in all cases, enough jobs for their able-bodied populations.

Rural residents are less likely to have access to homeless shelters or local advocacy organizations, and all of these challenges have been amplified by the devastating opioid epidemic.

A disproportionate percentage of people living in poverty live in rural communities. Notably, the number of rural lawyers is declining as some age out of the practice and are not being replaced by new lawyers who are willing to work in the rural, poorer parts of Ohio. This disparity means low-income individuals in rural communities are less likely to have access to the lawyers they need to secure or maintain their most basic needs like housing, health care or food assistance. Although some millennial lawyers still make choices to

open or join practices in rural America, often to join a family member’s firm, others choose to maintain their housing and continue their relationships with partners in the cities where they went to law school or other cities with the amenities they have become accustomed to in law school.

I cannot gloss over the decisions of generations of SEOLS lawyers who either returned to their hometowns or chose to lay down roots in new communities. The 50-plus SEOLS employees currently working out of our six Southeast Ohio offices deliver high-quality advocacy and passion for access to justice while witnessing daily the grinding impact of poverty on their neighbors, friends and families.

In addition to handling thousands of calls for help, with support from the Ohio State Bar Foundation, SEOLS has launched innovative service delivery models in our rural communities.

This includes our Portsmouth office’s medical-legal partnership with The Counseling Center and having a Chillicothe lawyer “embedded” in Sojourner’s, providing legal help to homeless and foster youth in rural Ross, Vinton, Meigs, Gallia, and Jackson counties.

Even with this committed pool of advocates, the challenge of linking the rural poor with legal help is a work in progress. With staffing at 50 percent of where it was in 2008, SEOLS is still fighting to build back its capacity to provide essential legal services for its neighbors — ensuring safe and stable housing for tenants, keeping food on the table for families, taking a stand against predatory lenders, securing necessary supports for veterans and seniors and arming pro se litigants with the vital tools to represent themselves in family court, public benefits hearings and evictions.

Fortunately, SEOLS is not alone in this fight. It has a long history of OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

23

working closely with the private bar to bring more legal help to people in need. Local courts play instrumental leadership roles, and lawyers step up to participate despite the hurdles facing rural practitioners. Many rural lawyers already have paying clients living just barely above the poverty thresholds and struggling to pay their fees. In some towns, SEOLS can struggle to refer a case without coming across a conflict for literally all private practitioners in the area due to the size of the bar.

Despite these obstacles, rural pro bono exists in Southeast Ohio, making recognition of those programs, lawyers and courts that much more important.

SEOLS, private lawyers and courts collaborate to offer pro bono clinics in Athens, Belmont, Coshocton, Fairfield, Knox, Licking, Muskingum, Perry, Ross, Scioto, Tuscarawas and Washington counties. In total, an impressive 173 lawyers donated time to SEOLS pro bono in 2017, totaling more than 600 volunteer hours, and the majority of those lawyers are living in, working in and supporting their communities.

The fight to bring access to justice to rural Ohio continues, and SEOLS is striving to increase incentives for local pro bono participation in its 30 counties by offering free continuing legal education, clinic infrastructure and non-

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lawyer volunteer opportunities through local schools like Ohio University, where nine undergraduate “Access to Justice Interns” are volunteering at the SEOLS Athens office. However, with fewer lawyers in rural areas, we also need to explore means by which urban resources can be coordinated to deliver remote-access legal services to rural communities.

In 2017, SEOLS and LASC secured funding from the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation to enhance our rural counties’ family law clinics by recording and producing self-help divorce form videos. In the next year, we hope to use a new technology platform called Closing the Gap, which enables lawyers sitting in their offices anywhere in our region to video chat, exchange documents, access training materials and populate pro se forms for clients sitting in rural offices, public libraries or other community partner programs. There is no denying that full representation by a local pro bono lawyer with experience in that substantive area and in that particular courthouse is invaluable, but the fact of the matter is that the traditional service delivery model alone simply cannot address the justice gap in rural Ohio. Columbus has 11,000 registered lawyers, compared with all of Vinton county which has about 10. It is time for

our legal community to explore how to help our rural practitioner partners and bridge that divide.

By many accounts, I am not from a small town. But many people in Ohio are — many hard-working, responsible, generous people who have had the odds stacked against them or fallen through weak safety nets at a time of crisis. This is a community-wide, statewide and nationwide problem.

Many stakeholders are trying to tackle it with possible solutions that are varied and complex, and the legal community plays an integral role. Ohio lawyers can and should be leaders in this effort to ensure access to justice in all of our communities — large and small.

If you want to join this movement to bridge the divide, contact the SEOLS pro bono program at www.seols.org/ give-volunteer/sign-up-to-volunteer/.

Author Bio

Dianna Howie is Pro Bono Team Managing Attorney for Southeastern Ohio Legal Services.

Statehouse Connection

TODD BOOK Todd Book is the OSBA's Assistant Executive Director for Policy and Public Affairs.

I am officially a member of the AARP Club! (What did you think this column was about?) It is amazing how fast time flies when you are having fun. It feels like only yesterday I was wondering what I was going to be when I grew up. Now I am all grown up and still wondering.

The good thing about reaching the half-century mark is that I am in good company. The average age of an OSBA member is 54, making me a young pup in comparison. In fact, 60 percent of our current attorney membership is over 50.

For a few years, I have heard talk of the graying of the profession. Now I can see it in the mirror.

The aging of the profession means the OSBA must continue to be relevant to attorneys as they enter the later years of their careers, while also appealing to the younglings as they begin their journey in the law. No easy task.

Fortunately, the older crowd, by and large, has a sense of obligation built into their psyche. There is an expectation to support the profession and the Association through membership. But that built-in loyalty only goes so far.

They still need to see value to justify the dues payment, especially as they slow down their practices.

For the younger set, it is even more about value. Younger generations are less imbued with the sense of duty and more motivated by purpose. They want to

Fifty Shades of the OSBA know they are getting something from their membership and that the OSBA has a purpose they can get behind.

Well, I think I have something both age groups can get excited about – fighting against sales tax on legal services.

Unfortunately, there is a growing national movement to expand sales taxes to services. Legal services are already subject to the sales tax in a few states. In Ohio, the push to expand the sales tax has come mainly from the Governor. Governor Kasich really hates the state income tax and wants to eliminate/reduce it by expanding the sales tax for services. Through the hard work of the OSBA advocacy team (me and my tapeworm) and our allies over the years, we have thwarted the expansion of sales tax to legal services – for now.

For attorneys, there is real value in not being turned into a tax collector for the state. Just imagine explaining to a client why there is sales tax added onto your fee. Also imagine all the fun of keeping track of the sales tax and remitting the tax with the forms. The OSBA’s continuing efforts to keep that nightmare from becoming a reality is worth the price of admission. But we can only remain a force at the Statehouse when we are strong in numbers. We need members like you in our ranks to ensure legislators continue to hear our prayers.

“Lawyers are champions of fairness – pushing back on a misery tax is a worthwhile purpose.”

And what better purpose than protecting the people we represent.

In 999 times out of 1,000, people are looking for legal services because something bad is going on in their lives.

Whether it be divorce or bankruptcy, they are in trouble and that is why they need you. In many ways, adding a sales tax to legal services is adding a misery tax on the people of Ohio. Lawyers are champions of fairness – pushing back on a misery tax is a worthwhile purpose.

OSBA membership has many useful perks: Casemaker, the Greenbook, discounts on CLE, member communities, and this Ohio Lawyer magazine are a few, but being part of an Association that looks out for you and the clients you represent, well, that is just downright sexy…at any age.

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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Situational Awareness and Surviving an Attack

By Mark Kitrick

All sectors of our daily lives have been violently attacked: schools, stadiums, arenas, convention and entertainment centers, airports, hotels and resorts, homes, malls, small and big towns, and places of worship. And every age, sex, race and belief have been affected.

Legal professionals, law offices and courthouses are certainly not immune.

We must assume the possibility of a violent attack wherever we are. Yet, after bad events we still hear people exclaim, “We never thought it would happen here.” Lack of security awareness is no longer an excuse for not being prepared. We must activate our situational awareness to contend with today’s reality and learn to prepare ourselves and our coworkers.

Activating our Situational Awareness: An Attacker’s Mindset How do we activate our situational awareness? We must first think like an attacker.1 Attackers use information collection techniques to gain awareness of our weaknesses. We must do the same. That means proactively observing and analyzing our surroundings, ascertaining our vulnerabilities, and then eliminating them.

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To engage in this proactive process, we start by answering these queries:

1. Have we walked meticulously around our workplace and at home and put ourselves in the criminals’ mindset to identify what is at stake (critical assets such as family members or expensive assets)?

2. Do we know what times and places are best or easiest to attack?

3. Have we walked inside and outside the grounds to discover where we could be attacked, determined the best egress routes, located places we can run for concealment or hard cover, figured out where an attacker would have the easiest avenue of approach?

4. In other words, what are our vulnerabilities?

If we review this basic counter surveillance checklist, we’re already far more prepared.

What about when we travel or go out somewhere? We should calmly scan our surroundings, even if they are friendly

spaces. This is called “checking your six.” We ascertain immediately how many feet we are from the nearest fire exit.2 When we enter any room or event, we first look for any object or person that is out of place, putting in context what is normal for the situation. We study body language, again determining if someone is acting inappropriately for the scenario. We learn to remain in a relaxed yet alert state so we can act if we must. Said another way, we become mindful of our surroundings vis-à-vis this heightened awareness, whether it be at home, in our car, walking in a crowd, at work, at a party, whereever we are. Ultimately, if it does not “feel” right, it probably is not. We should trust our instinct for danger. We should not let our brain override our gut feeling.

Switching to the Defender’s Mindset

After we’ve studied our surroundings from an attacker’s perspective and evaluated vulnerabilities, we then flip our mindset to prepare, protect, and defend by creating a standard operating procedure (SOP). The SOP should encompass what we do when attacked, such as (1) where to run, escape or hide, (2) what can we use as a weapon, (3)

who do we call, and (4) how to develop an alert signal to use with our friends, family and co-workers.

When under attack and highly stressed, this awareness and preparation allow us to better orient ourselves. We are far less likely to freeze from fear, the number one hurdle in a crisis. Then we can analyze the context of what is happening, that is, orient ourselves to what is happening to determine what we should do next. This is the brief pregnant pause where we now consider our options, such as where do we run, or hide, or how do we fight. At this point, we’ve gained enough insight to make the best tactical judgment possible under extreme circumstances. It also means we will not automatically follow the crowd (herd instinct).3 After all, others probably have not implemented the proper observation, preparation and orientation process, and thus following them may be a poor and perhaps deadly decision.4

When contending with any violent attack, such as an active shooter, we must run, hide and fight, in that order.

In mass shootings, it takes 3-7 minutes for the police to arrive.5 But most people are killed in the first 1.5 to 3 minutes.

Realistically then we must rely on ourselves when contending with such an emergency. What do we do?

Escape (Run), Evade (Hide), and Fight

We must act. First, if possible, we always try to run to safety. If we cannot, then we have to hide until we can run.

That means already knowing our options regarding nearby cover and concealment.

Taking cover should be the priority, and that means going where we won’t be seen and or shot. Think steel beams, cement walls, and other impenetrable objects. Concealment means moving where we can’t be seen but we can be shot or blown up. Think thick bushes.

If the attacker is too close and we cannot run or hide, then we fight fast and hard. These are the rules that close quarter urban combat Special Forces and SWAT teams live by. Grab an object

and use it as a weapon: forks, knifes, round glass ashtrays, the ends of rolled up magazines, rocks, the edges of books, pens. Smash the attacker’s soft target weaknesses like the head, ears, eyes, nose, head, throat, and joints. Primary responses like biting and head butts are powerful. Don’t wait for someone to move first, or you will fall victim to the “bystander effect”6 where no one does anything because everyone thinks someone else is going to act first.

Survival is the goal.7 Conclusion

In sum, here are a half dozen important safety rules:

1. We speak up and alert others if we perceive danger and, if it is appropriate, make warning noises, such as yelling and screaming. We do our best to scare an attacker, take him off his mark, or get him off balance.8

2. We won’t be easy targets. We walk tall and remain alert. We don’t look down at our phone, for instance. We carry wasp spray or other sprays we can use against attackers. We don’t walk or run alone in the dark, as another example.

3. We always back into our parking space so we can get out quickly. We always have at least a half a tank of gas.

4. If we intend to carry a weapon, we know the relevant concealed weapon license laws, especially when traveling.9 5. We develop a SOP with our family and friends when at home, at work, when traveling or when walking along main boulevards. Notably, most attacks occur where and when there are the most people, such as at airline ticket counters, entrances, main roads, boulevards, and intersections.

Author Bio

Mark Kitrick is a partner with Kitrick, Lewis & Harris, Co., LPA in Columbus. He is a Master Red Belt instructor in martial arts, self-defense and weapons (Karate/Aikido/Weapons), and trains in Israeli Counter Terror warfare (pistol/rifle/Krav Maga).

Endnotes 1

Sheep No More-The Art of Awareness and Attack

Survival, Johnathan. T. Gilliam (2017).

2

file:///C:/Users/user/AppData/Local/Microsoft/

Windows/INetCache/IE/ZHAE8BJE/17_1109_ NTAS_Bulletin.pdf.

3

http://cognitivebiases.com/herd-behavior/.

4

The concept of O.O.D.A. (Observe, Orient, Decide,

Act) is from military strategist John Boyd and has been used by Special Forces and the military for decades.

5

The Counter Terrorist Magazine, The Evolution of

Training, John Gomez (2017).

6

The Bystander Effect is a well-recognized

psychological phenomenon wherein the greater the number of people present, means it is less likely people will help a person in distress. When an emergency situation occurs, observers are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses. People believe that someone else is going to call for help.

7

file:///C:/Users/user/AppData/Local/Microsoft/

Windows/INetCache/IE/W5ZIJG04/active_shooter_ pocket_card_508.pdf.

8

https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something.

9

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2923.12.

6. We study people’s body movements.

Once we activate these life-changing habits, we will be more secure. We will have increased our security awareness and we are more likely to survive an attack.

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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What employers need to know about Ohio’s use of force self-defense and firearms

By Derek A. DeBrosse Use of force and, in particular, use of firearms in the workplace is oftentimes a widely misunderstood area of the law. With the various shootings and violence in today’s society, the use of firearms in all forms is a big issue. This article will focus generally on use of force self-defense and firearms in the context of employment.

Ohio Use of Deadly Force Self-Defense Deadly Force Self-Defense in Ohio is an affirmative defense, which the accused must prove. This burden shifting to the accused is a widely misunderstood concept in Ohio with most citizens believing the burden is always on the government.1 To establish deadly force self-defense, the accused must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they: (1) [were] not at fault in creating the situation giving rise to the affray; (2) had bona fide belief that [they were] in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that [their] only means of escape from such danger was the use of such force; and (3) did not violate any duty to retreat or avoid the danger.2 What this means is that if deadly force self-defense is claimed and allowed by the court as a legal defense then the burden shifts to the accused to prove their behavior was in conformance with the law. This burden is the starting point to utilizing deadly force in Ohio;

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however, many factors can change this analysis.

If one is in their residence, motor vehicle or an immediate family member’s motor vehicle, then the Castle Doctrine applies. This doctrine stands for the notion that a person’s home is their castle, and there is nowhere to retreat before using deadly force. If the Castle Doctrine attaches, it is one occasion where the basic selfdefense deadly force analysis changes.

In Ohio, if a person is lawfully within their residence, motor vehicle or an immediate family member’s motor vehicle then they have no duty to retreat before the use of deadly force is implemented.3 This includes using deadly force to defend oneself or another. When defending another, Ohio law follows the “alter ego” doctrine, which allows one to defend another if that person was justified in defending themselves. “The defendant must step into the shoes of the stranger, and is privileged to use no more force than the stranger was entitled to use.”4 Although Ohio’s statute on Castle Doctrine does not reference one’s business, case law establishes there is no duty to retreat from one’s business. “[O]ne has no duty to retreat if he is assaulted in his home or business.”5 Although there may not be a duty to retreat in one’s business or residence, it is not, however, a license to kill.

When using deadly force regardless of your location you must still meet the first two elements of the defense, not picking a fight and having an honest and reasonable belief of immediate danger of death or serious bodily harm.

Did you know?

While at work, it is important that one understand what their basic duties are if they intend to use deadly force as selfdefense. It is also immensely important that one understand the regulatory issues surrounding the carrying of a deadly weapon (primarily firearms) while at work.

Carrying a Concealed Handgun While at Work Ohio is an at-will employment state; therefore, one can be fired for taking their handgun to work, license or no license to carry. It is first and foremost imperative that all employees understand and comply with employment contracts, guidelines and handbooks. Additionally, if one’s employer does not prohibit the carrying of handguns by licensed persons it only applies to handguns. Ohio has a Concealed Handgun License or CHL and not a Concealed Carrying of Weapons license (CCW). One’s CHL does not apply to any other deadly instrument to include knives and long guns.

Parking Lots If an employer prohibits carrying firearms they cannot prohibit their storage within a vehicle. As of March 21, 2017, R.C. 2923.1210 prohibits property owners from restricting the storage of firearms in a vehicle. The new law is broken into three parts, the first of which is the prohibition. A property owner, business, or employer: may not establish, maintain, or enforce a policy or rule that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting a person who has been issued a valid concealed handgun license from transporting or storing a firearm or ammunition when…(1) Each firearm and all of the ammunition remains inside the person's privately owned motor vehicle while the

person is physically present inside the motor vehicle, or each firearm and all of the ammunition is locked within the trunk, glove box, or other enclosed compartment or container within or on the person's privately owned motor vehicle…(2) The vehicle is in a location where it is otherwise permitted to be.

No rule can be put into effect that is a direct infringement on the storage of firearms or any such rule that would have the same effect indirectly.

Additionally, if a motor vehicle is otherwise permitted to be somewhere on the property, it can be there with a firearm properly stored. Some employers have taken the position that they may regulate their employees by restricting where they park their vehicles if a gun is present; this is wholly against the law. If a person may otherwise have their vehicle in a particular spot they can do so with a legally stored firearm.

One common issue that arises is whether employers may permit certain people to carry that are licensees, but maintain posted signs generally prohibiting concealed carry. Simply put, the law is silent on this matter.

It is clear that if an employer posts a conspicuous sign, concealed carry of handguns is prohibited, and the law provides for no exceptions. However, because the landowner would be the victim and they permit certain individuals to carry, no crime has likely been committed especially if they note on the signs “unless otherwise permitted” or language of similar import.

In conclusion, if one is considering the carrying of a firearm while at work there is a wealth of information one must first consider. Additionally, if an employer permits such carry, they too have an immense responsibility to properly ensure legal compliance.

Author Bio

Secondly, the law provides for remedy when one violates R.C. 2923.1210 by securing a licensee’s right to seek civil and injunctive relief from the employer.

Third, the law provides limited immunity to the property owner or employer pursuant to the final section of the law.

“Do Not Carry” Signs Employers may still prohibit carrying inside of the structural facilities.

Aside from the statutorily prohibited places such as churches and police stations, private employers may post a sign conspicuously on their land prohibiting the carrying of firearms by licensees.6 Although an employer may have no formal policy against employees carrying, by conspicuously posting a “no guns” sign, the employer sets up an employee for committing a misdemeanor trespass.

Derek Andrew DeBrosse is a partner with Barney DeBrosse, LLC in Columbus.

Endnotes 1 Ohio HB 228 and SB 180 of the 132nd General Assembly would change the present burden shifting analysis if passed.

State v. Thompson, 141 Ohio St. 3d 254, 2014-Ohio-4751, 23 N.E.3d 1096 (2014).

2

3

See R.C. 2901.09.

State v. Wenger (1979), 58 Ohio St. 2d 336.

4

5 State v. Jackson, 22 Ohio St. 3d 281 (1986).

6

See R.C. 2923.126(C).

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

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The Movement

Join the movement! 



I N N OVAT E .

A DVO CAT E .

    LEAD.

C O L L A B O R AT E .

E D U CAT E .

VOLUNTEER.

This section highlights the work we do together to INNOVATE, LEAD, EDUCATE, ADVOCATE, COLLABORATE, and VOLUNTEER on behalf of the legal profession.

In this issue, we recognize the following award winners who embody all of these qualities. These awards were presented during the OSBA Council of Delegates meeting on April 27.

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

2018 Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism

2018 Nettie Cronise Lutes Award

Daniel Cook

Betty Montgomery

Daniel Cook received the Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism which was established in 1998 to honor one lawyer who has worked to promote and uphold legal professionalism and ethics. Cook is a member of the Litigation Department with Wickens, Herzer, Panza, Cook & Batista and was a member of the Lorain County Bar Association's Legal Ethics & Grievance Committee for 14 years, serving as the Committee's President and as bar counsel. In that capacity, he successfully prosecuted numerous disciplinary complaints before the Board of Commissioners of Grievance and Discipline of the Ohio Supreme Court. MartindaleHubbell has awarded Cook an AV rating for preeminent legal ability and having the highest ethical standards.

Former Attorney General Betty Montgomery received the Nettie Cronise Lutes Award recognizing women lawyers who demonstrate a high level of professionalism and open doors for other women and girls. Montgomery has had a long and distinguished career in public service. In 1981, she was elected Wood County Prosecutor and served as the only female prosecuting attorney throughout the state until 1989 when she became a State Senator. She went on to become the first female Ohio Attorney General in 1995 and in 2003, became Ohio's first woman Auditor of State. Her elected career ended in 2007, but she continues to serve on the advisory committee for the Women's Bar Foundation and as chair for the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute.

Here’s how the OSBA and lawyers like you help improve and advance the legal profession.

Lawyer-Legislator Distinguished Service Award

Larry Obhof

Former Attorney General Betty Montgomery received the Nettie Cronise Lutes Award recognizing women lawyers who demonstrate a high level of professionalism and open doors for other women and girls. Montgomery has had a long and distinguished career in public service. In 1981, she was elected Wood County Prosecutor and served as the only female prosecuting attorney throughout the state until 1989 when she became a State Senator. She went on to become the first female Ohio Attorney General in 1995 and in 2003, became Ohio's first woman Auditor of State. Her elected career ended in 2007, but she continues to serve on the advisory committee for the Women's Bar Foundation and as chair for the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute.

The Presidential Award for Pro Bono Service

Judge Luann Cooperrider & Judge Dean Wilson Judge Luann Cooperrider and Judge Dean Wilson received The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation's (OLAF) Presidential Award for Pro Bono Service, which was established

by OLAF to recognize firms, organizations or individuals that have made outstanding efforts to improve access to justice through pro bono service.

In 2008, Judge Cooperrider and Judge Wilson established the Perry County Free Legal Clinic in collaboration with Southeastern Ohio Legal Services. The clinic helps to narrow the access to justice gap in Perry County by increasing access to legal help. Services include assistance with record expungement; help for fathers interested in initiating contact and visitation with their children; and a partnership with the local county recorder to help residents better understand probate issues regarding property transfers.

The clinic has served more than 800 clients, including dozens of veterans.

Judge Cooperrider is both the first female lawyer to serve as assistant prosecutor in Perry County and the first female judge in the county. She has been recognized by the OSBA with the Women in Law Award, by the Ohio Justice Alliance for Community Corrections with the C.J. McLin Award, and was selected by her peers to serve as president of the Ohio Association of Juvenile Judges.

Judge Wilson has served in leadership roles with the Perry County Bar Association, as a mentor for the Ohio Judicial College, and as a member of the Community Correction Board as appointed by the Supreme Court of Ohio. He was instrumental in the formation of the Perry County New Direction Drug Court, a specialized drug court docket that provides access to a range of alcohol and drug treatment counseling. Judge Wilson is a currently serving a three-year term on the Ohio State Bar Association’s Board of Governors.

OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

31

Member Profile How did you develop an interest in law?

DAVID ROPER 2L at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Editor-in-chief elect of the Ohio State Law Journal

MEMBER SINCE:

2018 CITY/COUNTY: Columbus, OH Compiled by Kylie Bennett, a sophomore at The Ohio State University and an intern in the Communications Department at the Ohio State Bar Association.

Want to nominate someone for the member profile checkout? Send an email to editor@ohiobar.org

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OHIO LAWYER MAY/JUNE 2018

What is the best advice that you ever received?

I always had the sense that I might want to go to law school and become a lawyer. As an undergraduate I was a baseball player. I was caught up in that and it was really fun.

When undergrad ended it came time to get a job, so I started working at the Ohio Statehouse. That experience really affirmed my interest in the law and reignited my desire to go to law school.

When you are trying to solve a problem, always keep in mind your predisposition or the outcome you want. Keep an open mind and listen to other arguments and ways of approaching the issue. That helps you refine your perspective, but you don't have to lose yourself in that dynamic. Inclusion and empowering underrepresented groups is important.

How did you get involved in the law journal?

How do you think the OSBA will help you advance your legal career?

I got involved with the law journal last year, after my first year. I wrote onto the law journal through the writing competition and was admitted that way. This past year I was a staff editor, so I edited a lot of the articles that were submitted and accepted for publication. Then I ran for election for editor in chief this spring.

What about law school is the most challenging thing for you?

I think the most challenging thing for me, and for anybody, is reorganizing your brain and the way that it filters information in the first year. The volume of work is a challenge. It requires time management skills and a desire to learn and get through your work. With the extra responsibility of editor in chief, it adds another layer to that challenge, but I enjoy it.

What legacy will you leave behind at the law school and the law journal?

I hope that the internal procedures foster a collaborative atmosphere in the journal so that Ohio State Law Journal members are prepared to enter the professional workforce and collaborate with their colleagues regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other sort of identifying feature. I hope that I empower underrepresented groups to feel like they can be participants in the law journal.

Not only because I got elected to editor in chief, but also because the atmosphere is a place that they feel like they can be full participants and be welcomed. If you look at the trends around the country, with intentional efforts, there can be progress.

I hope that I can bring those to the Ohio State Law Journal.

I think the OSBA will help me advance my legal career through the CLE opportunities but also the networking opportunities with attorneys. In my time at the State House, I got to interact with a lot of OSBA members. Those experiences were enriching because I saw what they did and got the sense that I wanted to do that someday.

Some of them helped me and advised me about applying to law school and practicing as an attorney. Those experiences were really helpful for me when it came to making the decision to come to law school and in my professional development.

Do you have any hobbies?

I love sports. I love the Cincinnati Reds and Ohio State football. I'm a Bengals fan, too. I maintain an interest in politics from my experience at the State House.

How has baseball informed your work ethic as a law student?

Baseball has influenced me a lot. I was a pitcher, so I had a very regimented way of preparing for my starts. It also helped teach me how to interact with people. I had teammates from the most rural parts of the country, but also teammates where English wasn't their first language. Baseball gave me a lot of experience dealing with people with different philosophies, mindsets, and modes of communication. I firmly believe that's a really important professional skill both in terms of interacting with other attorneys and also interacting with my clients one day. I really appreciate what baseball and the experience of playing has done for me.

For more on David Roper, watch his OSBA Member Profile video on www. ohiobar.org/droper.

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LEGAL FORUM CO LU M B U S

AUGUST 22-24, 2018

Look for the Registration form in this issue or go to ohiobar.org/ forum to learn more!