¨ Winston, Administrator of Estate of Tamir Rice v. City of Cleveland, No. 1:14-cv-2670 (N.D. Ohio 2016) (working with co-counsel, secured $6 million record settlement for Cleveland police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice).
¨ Obeidallah v. Anglin, (S.D. Ohio 2019) (with co-counsel, secured $4.1 million libel judgment for comedian commentator Dean Obeidallah against white-supremacist Andrew Anglin and his website The Daily Stormer).
¨ Lockhart v. Woodmere, No. 1:07-cv-2517 (N.D. Ohio 2008) ($2 million+ Title VII and First Amendment–retaliation jury-trial verdict for African-American police chief against mayor and village).
¨ Green v. City of Cleveland, No. 1:03-cv-0906 (N.D. Ohio 2003) (forged settlement hailed by Innocence Project as national model, on Cleveland’s behalf with Anthony Michael Green, who was wrongfully convicted of rape and served 13 years in prison because of civil-rights violations. Agreed to reopen over 100 cases involving the same responsible forensic analyst, appoint a DNA-evidence special master, and perform testing to identify others wrongfully convicted—this resulted in identification of others) (column about this attached).
¨ Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and Service Employees International Union Local 1199 v. Blackwell, No. 2:06-cv-896 (S.D. Ohio) (with co-counsel engaged in ten-year span of successful litigation on behalf of homeless advocates, individuals, and labor union against three Ohio secretaries of state of both political parties to secure right of homeless and impoverished people. Extensive discovery; briefing; evidentiary hearings; complex negotiation of interim and final consent decrees, litigating over breaches and filing supplemental complaints, trial, and appeals. Issues included vote-suppressing effects of voter-ID statute and process for casting and counting of provisional and absentee ballots).
¨ Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless v. Husted, 696 F.3d 580 (6th Cir. 2012) (with co-counsel, ensured counting of provisional ballots of voters who are misdirected by pollworkers to vote in the wrong precinct).
¨ NEOCH v. Husted, 837 F.3d 612 (2016) (with co-counsel, secured appellate win for absentee-ballot voters against Ohio’s “perfect-form” requirements for filling ballot forms, after broader federal-district-court trial win).
¨ Lavin v. Husted, 689 F.3d 543 (6th Cir. 2012) (First Amendment victory for physician plaintiffs, reversing district court, and declaring unconstitutional statute barring attorney general and prosecutor candidates from accepting contributions from Medicaid providers); Lavin v. Husted, 764 F.3d 646 (6th Cir. 2014) (reversing district court for failing to award reasonable attorneys’ fees, and remanding to a different district-court judge—leading Sixth Circuit decision on fee-shifting).
¨ Boustani v. Blackwell, 460 F. Supp. 2d 822 (N.D. Ohio 2006) (with co-counsel, successful voting-rights challenge to Ohio statute authorizing pollworkers to discriminate against naturalized U.S. citizens in voting).
¨ Nelson v. Bahama Breeze, No. CV-18-903466 (Cuy. Cty. Comm. Pls. 2018) (secured resolution for 21 African-American diners against restaurant chain and managers for race-discrimination-in-public-accommodations claim).
¨ Glass v. Clark, Nos. 1:20-cv-2041/1:19-cv-1825 (N.D. Ohio) (represent Cuyahoga County jail-torture victim who was restrained in a chair and pepper-sprayed and alleging racially disparate treatment for failure to decontaminate).
¨ Ku v. Mitchell, No. CV-13-815935 (Cuy. Comm. Pls. Ct.) (secured resolution for law professor/former associate dean for retaliation by Case Western Reserve University law-school dean over sexual-harassment reports).
¨ Ortiz v. Kazimer, 811 F.3d 848 (6th Cir. 2016); Ortiz v. City of Cleveland, No. 1:16-cv-2529 (N.D. Ohio 2016) Ortiz v. City of Cleveland, No. 1:16-cv-2529 (N.D. Ohio 2016) (obtained settlement from City after decision denying qualified immunity to officers who attacked 16-year-old Latino child with Down syndrome).
¨ Ali v. City of Cleveland, No. 17-cv-634 (N.D. Ohio 2017) (secured First Amendment–retaliation settlements and OSHA judgments exceeding $520,000 for whistleblowing Cleveland airfield-maintenance manager who informed FAA about unsafe runway conditions and City’s failure to comply with its FAA rules).
¨ Novak v. City of Parma, 932 F.3d 421 (6th Cir. 2019) (affirming parodist’s First Amendment right to mock police).
¨ DeCrane v. Eckart, 12 F.4th 596 (6th Cir. 2021) (the leading (along with Buddenberg, below) public-employee First Amendment–retaliation case in the Sixth Circuit; affirming denial of summary judgment in favor of our former fire-battalion-chief client and remanding for trial).
¨ Buddenberg v. Weisdack, 939 F.3d 732 (6th Cir. 2019) (groundbreaking case establishing right to sue employment-defense attorneys for participating in illegal Title VII and First Amendment retaliation).
¨ Buddenberg v. Weisdack, 2020 Ohio 3832, 109 NE 3d 1259 (2020) (on certified question from federal court above, secured Ohio Supreme Court victory establishing no conviction prerequisite under R.C. 2307.60 and 2921.03 before crime victims may sue their perpetrators civilly—groundbreaking case opening new causes of action).
¨ Jacobson v. Kaforey, 2016-Ohio-8434, 149 Ohio St. 3d 398 (2016) (Ohio Supreme Court victory establishing independent civil cause of action under R.C. 2307.60 for crime victims to sue their perpetrators civilly).
¨ Johnson v. City of Cleveland, (N.D. Ohio 2019) (secured nearly $1,000,000 in settlements for peaceful protestors at the 2016 Republican National Convention).
¨ Kesterson v. Kent State Univ., No. 5:16-cv-298 (N.D. Ohio 2016), Sixth Cir. App. Nos. 18-4200, 19-3080 (with co-counsel, obtained Title IX/First Amendment–retaliations settlement for softball player raped by coach’s son).
¨ White v. Akron Beacon Journal Publishing Co., No. 5:09 CV 2193 (N.D. Ohio 2010) (obtained injunction, followed by favorable settlement, against major newspaper—and order that millions of dollars in promised union-retiree healthcare benefits be restored under ERISA). Similar favorable result in related case: Olesky v. Beacon Publishing Co.
¨ Williams v. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, No. 1:15-cv-2496 (secured resolution for deaf plaintiff over ADA claims about deficient deaf-interpretation services).
¨ Evans v. Ohio Lottery Comm’n, No. 1:15-cv-164 (N.D. Ohio 2015) (secured settlement for African-American female lottery-commission employee for race-discrimination, gender-discrimination, and First Amendment–retaliation claims arising from unequal pay for the same work previously performed by a white male).
¨ J.G. v. Jones, No. 1:17-cv-1171 (N.D. Ohio 2017) (obtained settlement from Lakewood library and judgment from City of Lakewood for African-American girl attacked by police officer at library—resulting in broken jaw, and her younger brother, who was traumatized by the incident).
¨ United States v. City of Cleveland (N.D. Ohio 2004) (negotiated consent decree for Cleveland with the Department of Justice to curb police use of deadly force and ensure proper officer training; oversaw drafting of new policies).
¨ Raycom v. Campbell, 361 F.Supp.2d 679 (N.D. Ohio 2004) (successful defense of Cleveland mayor in First Amendment–retaliation suit by WOIO Channel 19’s parent company).
¨ Youngstown Publishing Co. v. McKelvey, 189 Fed. Appx. 402 (6th Cir. 2006) (secured trial and appeals-court defense victories in First Amendment–retaliation case brought by reporters and editor against Youngstown’s mayor).
¨ Doe v. United States, 253 F.3d 256 (6th Cir. 2001) (established broad subpoena authority for administrative subpoenas in healthcare-fraud criminal investigations, to establish whether investigatory targets had intent).
¨ Healthcare-fraud-and-corruption series (secured about 22 convictions most through guilty pleas of physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, and companies that took kickbacks in return for referrals for often medically unnecessary electrodiagnostic testing. One case went to trial and resulted in a conviction. Award from FBI Director Robert Mueller).
¨ United States v. Wade, No. 4:01-cr-00176 (N.D. Ohio 2002) (co-prosecuted trial of recidivist bank-fraud ringleader; resulted in conviction).
¨ State v. Wells, et al., Cuy. Cty. Comm. Pls. Ct. Case No. CR-06-490671 (secured dismissal of criminal-mortgage-fraud charges against two defendants, while 30+ others represented by other counsel were convicted).
