Recent News

May 15, 2009

Brown, Voinovich Announce Nomination Process

In the interest of identifying the best possible candidates to fill U.S. District Court vacancies, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and George V. Voinovich (R-OH) formed two bipartisan judicial advisory commissions that will recommend candidates for positions in the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio.

The two commissions will each have 17 members. To prevent any conflicts of interest, commission members residing in the Southern District of Ohio will screen applicants for the Northern District while members residing in the Northern District will review Southern District applicants. There is currently one vacancy in the Southern District, and the Northern District will have one vacancy effective July 3, 2009.

Candidates can request applications by emailing judicial_candidate@brown.senate.gov. Applications can be requested through close of business on Friday, May 8, 2009 and must be completed by close of business on Friday, May 22.

U.S. District Court judges are nominated by the president of the United States and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. U.S. District Courts are general trials courts which hear both civil and criminal cases.

The Northern District has court locations in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, and Youngstown and serves 5.9 million citizens in 40 Ohio counties. The Northern District commission will be chaired by Nancy Rogers, Moritz College of Law. Other commission members include Robin Bozian of Marietta, Washington County Legal Aid; Donald Brey of Columbus, Chester Willcox & Saxbe; Al Gerhardstein of Cincinnati, Gerhardstein & Branch; Sean Grayson of Dayton, AFSCME Ohio Council 8; Ralph Harper of Dayton, former Green County commissioner; Dave Hobson of Springfield, a former Representative of Ohio’s 7th Congressional district; Nathaniel Jones of Cincinnati, chief diversity and inclusion officer for Blank Rome and former member of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; Ralph Kohnen of Cincinnati, Taft Stettinius & Hollister; John Kulewicz of Columbus, Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease; Greg Lockhart of Dayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Roderick McDavis of Athens, president of Ohio University; Jill Meyer of Cincinnati, Frost Brown Todd; Alvarene Owens of Dayton, independent practitioner; Elizabeth Smith of Columbus, Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease; Susan Tomasky of Columbus, American Electric Power; Kurtis Tunnell of Columbus Bricker & Eckler.

The Southern District has court locations in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton and serves more than 5 million citizens in 48 Ohio counties. The Southern District commission will be chaired by Paul Harris of Cleveland, executive vice president, secretary, and general counsel to Key Bank in Cleveland. Other commission members include Kenneth Callahan of Cleveland, Buckley King; Timothy Cosgrove of Cleveland, Squire Sanders & Dempsey; Patrick Keating of Akron, Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs; Wendy Leatherberry of Cleveland Heights, community activist; E.J. Leizerman of Toledo, E.J. Leizerman & Associates; Brant Luther of Canton, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Stark County; Patrick McLaughlin of Cleveland, McLaughlin & McCaffrey; Margaret Murray of Sandusky, Murray & Murray; Sandy McNair of Cleveland, Schwarzwald McNair & Fusco; Ralph Regula of Navarre, a former U.S. Representative from Ohio’s 16th Congressional District; Charna Sherman of Cleveland, Sanders Squire & Dempsey; John H. Siegenthaler of Mansfield, Weldon Huston & Keyser; Lou Stokes of Cleveland, a former U.S. Represenative from Ohio’s 21st Congressional district and current senior counsel at Squire Sanders & Dempsey; David Sweet of Youngstown, president of Youngstown State University; Larry Turner of Youngstown, a Turner May & Shepherd; Christopher Knight of Clyde, Knight Law Firm.