LABOR

    ▪ Regularly represents various employers, including public school boards of education, with respect to issues dealing with non-competition, non-solicitation, and other employment-related litigation matters (e.g., state and federal employment discrimination/retaliation laws, FLSA, ADEA, and FMLA).

    ▪ Represents employers, including public school boards of education, in proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Ohio Civil Rights Commission with respect to claims of race, sex, age, and disability discrimination/retaliation.

    ▪ Represents employers, including public school boards of education, in federal and state courts involving claims alleging violations of the Constitution as well as discrimination and/or retaliation based on race, sex, age, and disability.

ADEA

COMMERCIAL LITIGATION

    ▪ Assisted in obtaining summary judgment – which was upheld on appeal to the Eighth District Court of Appeals (Carl J. Falivene, et al. v. Bob Schmitt Homes, Inc., Case No. 2012-Ohio-259) – for a developer relative to breach of contract, fraud, fraudulent inducement, negligent misrepresentation, promissory estoppel, and Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act claims brought against the developer by a homeowner.

    ▪ Assisted in obtaining a six-figure settlement of a dispute between shareholders of a closely-held corporate

    ▪ entity following the sale of that entity to a third-party.

    ▪ Assisted in the defense of corporate clients relative to claims brought pursuant to the Telephone

    ▪ Consumer Protection Act (including claims related to telephone fax machines, automatic telephone dialing systems, etc.).

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of a national banking association relative to a multi-million-dollar lease

    ▪ agreement dispute.

    ▪ Assists in the defense of corporate clients relative to claims.

    ▪ Participated in pleading, motion practice and discovery in trade secret litigation in state court in Ohio.

    ▪ Manages large-scale discovery productions of traditional hard-copy documents as well as electronically-stored information.

EDUCATION

    ▪ Counsels school districts with regard to public records requests and related litigation.

    ▪ Counsels school districts relative to Ohio’s Public Records Act and Open Meetings Act.

LITIGATION

    ▪ Participated in representation of trust beneficiaries in resolving a dispute in federal court with a trustee arising from certain investment decisions made by the trustee. The amount at issue was in excess of $1 million.

    ▪ Sat second-chair in a four-day jury trial in state court that resulted in a unanimous jury verdict. The case involved a contract between a law firm and our client (who was formerly the law firm’s client). The law firm was found liable to the client on a counterclaim and the client was awarded compensatory damages.

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of a local school district in the defense of its education relative to a student

    ▪ with disabilities.

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of a local municipality with respect to the negligent engineering and design

    ▪ of a multi-million-dollar public improvement project.

    ▪ Manages document production (often in excess of 100,000 pages) of traditional hard-copy documents as well as electronically-stored information.

COLLAR CRIMINAL DEFENSE

    ▪ Assisted in the defense of a high-profile, media-intensive, white collar criminal defense matter that

    ▪ culminated in a month-long trial.

APPELLATE LITIGATION

    ▪ Assisted in the appellate court’s upholding a trial court’s decision that an option clause in a residential

    ▪ building contract had been waived by the consumer.

    ▪ Regularly practices before all Ohio courts as well as the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

REAL ESTATE LITIGATION

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of a real estate developer, successfully arguing that the provisions of an automatic termination provision in an option contract could not be modified by contrary oral representations; summary judgment was granted in the developer’s favor and upheld on appeal.

    ▪ Assisted in the successful, pre-litigation enforcement of a Confidentiality, Non-Disclosure and Non- Circumvention Agreement relative to the acquisition and repositioning of value add commercial and

    ▪ multi-family properties.

    ▪ Assisted in the six-figure recovery of consulting and acquisition service fees, as well as legal fees incurred relative to the enforcement of the Acquisition Services Agreement.

    ▪ Counsels clients on various commercial and residential leases, management and operating agreements, common area maintenance issues, development agreements, nuisance abatement, and zoning matters.

CORPORATE INVESTIGATIONS

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of an officer and director of a publicly traded company relative to an investigation concerning the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice.

    ▪ Assisted in the personal representation of a nationally-recognized physician relative to an internal corporate investigation as well as investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Justice, resulting in indemnification of the physician’s attorneys’ fees and expenses.

    ▪ Assists in the representation of businesses and business partners both in arbitration, and in state and federal courts, regarding commercial disputes such as breach of contract, fraud, breach of duty, tortious interference, misappropriation of trade secrets, and civil conspiracy.

INTERNET DEFAMATION

    ▪ Defended and advised client who allegedly sent defamatory emails and interfered with prospective

    ▪ business relationships.

    ▪ Represented an international food preparer and supplier in the removal of multiple videos from YouTube

    ▪ and other internet sites posted by a terminated employee under an “anonymous” username.

    ▪ Assisted in the representation of a national insurance agency relative to anonymous internet defamation

    ▪ activities as well as cyber-attacks falsely associating emails and other internet activity with the agency.

    ▪ Federal Bar Association
Member (Past)

    ▪ American Bar Association
Member (Past)

    ▪ Ohio State Bar Association
Member

    ▪ Pennsylvania Bar Assocation
Member

    ▪ Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Green Initiative Committee
Member (Past)

    ▪ Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Civil Justice Improvement Committee
Member (Past)

    ▪ Cleveland Chapter of Women in eDiscovery
Member Past)

    ▪ Ohio Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America
Member and Board of Trustees (Past)

    ▪ Ohio School Boards Association’s Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys
Member (Past)