Honor our Living Legends of the C|M|LAW Hall of Fame Class of 2017

Honor our Living Legends
of the C|M|LAW Hall of Fame Class of 2017

This year's 120 Hall of Fame honorees are in three categories and are listed at the link below. Please join us at the October 19 Celebration where all 120 honorees will be inducted.

We will have valet parking available at E.19 ^th St. and Chester. The reception begins at 5:30pm, and the ceremony begins at 6:15pm.

The C|M|LAW 120 - 2017 Inaugural Hall of Fame Class

Founding Honorees (1897-1945)
Commemorated Honorees (after 1945)
Living Legends

Our Living Legends all graduated from or made significant contributions to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and/or Cleveland-Marshall Law School after 1946 and continue to contribute to the esteemed reputation of C|M|LAW today.

Judge Ronald B. Adrine

Class of 1973

Ronald Adrine practiced law with his legendary father Russell (1954) (also a Hall of Fame Inductee) before being appointed Senior Staff Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations. He joined the Cleveland Municipal Court bench in 1981 and has served as Administrative and Presiding Judge since 2008.

Sheryl King Benford

Class of 1979

Sheryl King Benford worked as Cleveland's Assistant Law Director from 1981-1984 and 1988-1991 and as Shaker Heights Law Director from 1992-2000 in addition to having a private practice. In 2000, she became the Deputy General Manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and currently serves as RTA's Chief Legal Officer.

Judge Patricia A. Blackmon
Class of 1975

Patricia Blackmon was elected to a Judgeship on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in 1991, the first African-American woman in Ohio to serve on any of the state's appeals courts, and is now serving her third term with distinction.

Louise P. Dempsey
Class of 1981

Louise Dempsey began her distinguished career at Cleveland-Marshall in 1984, three years after graduating from the law school, as Director of Development and Alumni Affairs. She went on to serve as Assistant Dean for External Affairs from 1988 until she retired in 2011.

Jose C. Feliciano, Sr.
Class of 1975

José Feliciano became prosecutor for Cuyahoga County and the city of Cleveland, respectively, from 1978-1984. Feliciano was named one of 12 White House Fellows in 1984. He joined the firm of BakerHostetler in 1985 and became a Partner in the firm's Litigation Group in 1987.

Hon. George L. Forbes
Class of 1962

George Forbes is the founder of Forbes, Fields & Associates Co., LPA. From 1963-1989, he was a Cleveland City Councilman and the council's first African-American President, serving in that role from 1972 until his retirement. He also served for many years as Cleveland's NAACP President, receiving that organization's highest award for meritorious service.

Avery S. Friedman

Class of 1972

Avery Friedman, described as a "walking reference source" on civil rights by The Wall Street Journal, is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and law professor. A weekend legal analyst for CNN since 2001. Friedman reaches a weekly audience of over 3,000,000 viewers.

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge
Class of 1983

Marcia Fudge has represented the people of the 11th Congressional District of Ohio since 2008. Fudge has served the people of Ohio for more than two decades, beginning her public service career in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. She was the first African-American and first female Mayor of Warrensville Heights.

Michael E. Gibbons
Class of 1982

Michael Gibbons is Founder of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), a middle market investment bank with offices around the globe. Prior to forming BGL, he was a Senior Vice President of McDonald & Company Securities and President and CEO of Underwood, Neuhaus & Company.

Karen L. Giffen
Class of 1989

Karen Giffen co-founded the women-owned firm Giffen & Kaminski in 2004 with fellow Hall of Fame honoree Kerin Lyn Kaminski (1985). She serves as Treasurer of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, and is a former Board Member of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms.

James L. Hardiman
Class of 1968

James Hardiman fought racial injustice as an attorney in private practice and as an assistant city prosecutor before becoming Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio. In private practice, his career is celebrated for his successful advocacy and defense of the rights of minorities and the city's neediest citizens.

Mayor Frank G. Jackson

Class of 1983

Frank Jackson, the 57th Mayor of Cleveland, grew up in the city's Kinsman and Central neighborhoods and attended local schools. Jackson was elected to City Council in 1989 and won his first mayoral election in 2005.

Kerin Lyn Kaminski
Class of 1985

Kerin Lyn Kaminski co-founded the women-owned firm Giffen & Kaminski in 2004 with fellow Hall of Fame honoree Karen Giffen (1989). Kaminski has served as President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and currently is a board member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Foundation.

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor
Class of 1980

Maureen O'Connor is the 10^th Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court and the first woman to lead the Ohio judicial branch. Justice O'Connor's distinguished career in public service and the law includes service as a private lawyer, Magistrate, Common Pleas Court Judge, County Prosecutor, and Ohio Lt. Governor.

Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr.

Solomon Oliver served as Professor and Associate Dean at Cleveland-Marshall, where he taught and published in the areas of civil procedure, federal jurisdiction, and trial advocacy. He was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1994 and served as the court's Chief Judge from 2010 to 2017.

David M. Paris

Class of 1978

David Paris is Managing Partner of Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy, starting with the firm as a law clerk in the mid-1970s while attending Cleveland-Marshall. He is a fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an exclusive group limited to only 500 American lawyers.

Judge Benita Y. Pearson

Class of 1995

Benita Pearson of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio is the first African-American woman to hold a seat on a federal court in Ohio. In 2008, she was appointed a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court, and in 2009, she was nominated a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Steven W. Percy
Class of 1979

Steven Percy spent 23 years with BP America Inc. (previously Standard Oil Company) in various capacities before retiring as Chairman and CEO in 1999. He served on President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development.

Professor Emerita Jane M. Picker

Jane Picker joined the Cleveland-Marshall faculty in 1972 and almost immediately began to make the working world a better place for both men and women. She joined forces with fellow Yale alumna Professor Lizabeth Moody in founding the Women's Law Fund, the first law firm in America to specialize in sex-discrimination cases.

Judge Dan Aaron Polster

Dan Aaron Polster of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio received commission in 1998. Prior to serving as judge, he worked as a federal prosecutor in Cleveland for 22 years. In addition to regular speaking engagements, Polster has taught at Cleveland-Marshall since 2002

Steven Potash
Class of 1978

Steven Potash, President and CEO of OverDrive, formed the idea for his company while attending C|M|LAW. OverDrive is now the leading worldwide digital platform for eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital media for libraries, schools, government agencies, corporate learning centers, and colleges and universities.

Elizabeth Pugh
Class of 1978

Elizabeth Pugh has served for the past 19 years as General Counsel for the Library of Congress, the world's largest library and the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. Pugh began her legal career as an attorney with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Education.

Judy and Robert H. Rawson, Jr.

Robert Rawson started practice in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day and returned to Cleveland in 1973 as a partner, serving as Partner-in-Charge for 15 years. Judy Rawson served the City of Shaker Heights for 21 years as a City Council member and as Mayor. In 2016, they make a $500,000 gift to C|M|LAW, which funded the Rawson Learning Commons.

Thomas J. Scanlon
Class of 1963

Thomas Scanlon joined forces with Charles Donahue II (1967) to form Donahue & Scanlon; when Donahue retired, Scanlon partnered with Tim Collins (1985) to form Collins & Scanlon. Scanlon was appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court as a Bar Examiner.

Mark A. Smolik
Class of 1987

Mark Smolik is General Counsel and Chief Compliance officer of DHL's supply chain operations throughout the Americas. He also serves as Global Chair of DHL's supply chain legal practice group and is responsible for leading the legal, commercial contract management, government incentives, and compliance teams throughout the Americas.

Stephen G. Sozio
Class of 1983

Stephen Sozio is a Jones Day partner who serves as both Co-leader of the firm's global health care practice and Head of litigation for the Cleveland office. Prior to joining Jones Day, he worked as a prosecutor for the Organized Crime Strike Force Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio.

Carl L. Stern
Class of 1966

Carl Stern is Professor Emeritus of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and former Office of Public Affairs Director for the Department of Justice under Attorney General Janet Reno. Prior to his career at the DOJ, he was NBC News Law Correspondent for 26 years.

Judge Melody J. Stewart
Class of 1988

Melody Stewart served as an assistant law director for the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, eventually returning to the law school in various capacities-as a Lecturer, Adjunct Instructor, Assistant Dean and full-time faculty member. She was elected to the Eighth District Court of Appeals in 2006 and has been re-elected twice.

Richard P. Stovsky
Class of 1983

Richard Stovsky is PricewaterhouseCooper's Vice Chairman for the Midwest region, where he oversees all services to clients in the region. He has served as Co-chair of Cleveland-Marshall's Annual Fund several times, and he currently serves on the C|M|LAW Executive Committee of the Board of Visitors.

P. Kelly Tompkins
Class of 1981

Kelly Tompkins serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Cleveland-Cliffs. Previously, he served as Chief Counsel and later Chief Financial officer at RPM International Inc.

LEARN LAW. LIVE JUSTICE.

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