VOTE411 Voter Guide

I have been a lawyer and a judge for more than 30 years. Prior to becoming a judge in 2011, I was in the private practice of law for nearly two decades, where I practiced in business and civil litigation, appellate advocacy, and employment law. I appeared before many courts, including the Supreme Court of Ohio and the federal appellate courts. I began my career as a judicial law clerk for the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth Appellate District.

I have also served as an adjunct professor of legal writing at the University of Akron School of Law and am a published co-author of a legal treatise, Ohio Motions in Limine: Evidence Exclusion Guide.

For more than 20 years, I have been selected by the Supreme Court of Ohio to grade the Ohio bar examination, and am now a member of the Board of Bar Examiners, which is responsible for developing, administering, and grading the Ohio bar examination.

I have held this seat for more than 15 years and have built a reputation as a fair, independent, and impartial judge. I believe that everyone who comes before the Court deserves to be heard, respected, and treated equally. With years in the courtroom and thousands of cases handled, I understand the responsibility this role carries and the importance of steady, experienced leadership on the bench. I believe the people of Summit County deserve competence, efficiency, courtesy, intelligence, and respect and hope to have the opportunity to continue to bring those values to this important position.

Access to the Courts and to justice continues to be a challenge to our community. Numerous factors contribute to impeding individuals from accessing the legal system. Those include the volume of cases and the shortage of court-appointed counsel. Each judge in the general division of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas currently handles twice the average number of cases that are heard by similar judges across Ohio. With fifteen years of experience, I have learned to handle cases efficiently, while continuing to give each case the attention and fairness that it requires. The shortage of lawyers qualified to represent low-income individuals contributes to delay in resolving cases. I have and will continue to encourage lawyers to get involved in representing these individuals and will work with the Ohio Public Defender's Office to remove the barriers that prevent lawyers from doing this important work.

In addition to the factors discussed above, citizens face complex and expensive procedures which pose barriers to justice and prolong legal proceedings. Parties to civil cases, and both victims and defendants in criminal cases, must navigate complicated procedures and delays in reaching a conclusion to their cases. Public defenders and legal aid providers often carry caseloads too large to handle timely and efficiently, while private representation may be prohibitively expensive for many individuals. Despite these structural problems, to the extent that I am able, I always try to assist both represented and unrepresented individuals in understanding proper procedure and what to expect in Court.