Justice, Supreme Court of Ohio
Justice Joseph T. Deters is the 163rd justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He took office in January 2023, following appointment by Governor Mike DeWine.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Deters served as the longest-tenured prosecutor in Hamilton County. He held the position twice from 1992-1999 and 2005-2023.
During his time as prosecutor, Justice Deters established the first drug court in Ohio, in partnership with Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The Hamilton County Drug Treatment and Recovery Court handles more cases than any other specialized docket in the state.
Justice Deters established the county’s first victim/witness advocate program and helped develop several diversion programs for first time non-violent offenders. He started a sex offender unit within the prosecutor’s office to monitor offender registration and compliance. He formed a unit focused on violent crimes against women and children.
Justice Deters was elected statewide as Ohio Treasurer for two terms, in 1998 and 2002. As treasurer, he was responsible for collecting, managing, and investing more than $11 billion in assets for the state.
He served as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts from 1988-1992. The justice spent the first six years of his legal career as an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor.
Justice Deters received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Cincinnati, where he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus. He is a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association and various civic organizations. He previously served on the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees, Ohio Organized Crime Commission, and the Southern Ohio Leukemia Foundation.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Michael P. Donnelly is a judge on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas General Division in Cleveland, Ohio. He first joined the court on January 3, 2005. Donnelly won re-election to a third consecutive term in the general election on November 8, 2016. His current term expires January 2, 2023.
Donnelly received his undergraduate degree from John Carroll University and his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1992 and began working as an assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County. In 1997, he left that role to become an attorney at the firm of Davis & Young, where he worked until 1999. He then joined the firm of Climaco, Lefkowitz, Peca, Wilcox & Garofoli, working as a private practice attorney until his election to the common pleas bench in 2004.
In 2011, Donnelly participated in a program with the National Judicial College called "Innovative Leadership/Management Skills for Future Court Leaders". In 2012, Donnelly served as the Chair of Commission on Professionalism.
Judge, 8th District Court of Appeals, State of Ohio
Judge Lisa Forbes was elected to the Eighth District Court of Appeals on November 3, 2020. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Forbes was a partner in the Cleveland office of the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP where she practiced in the area of complex litigation. As a litigator, Judge Forbes represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout Ohio for 27 years.
Throughout her career, Judge Forbes has been an active and engaged member of the Northeast Ohio community including serving on the boards of the Centers for Families and Children and Circle Health for over a decade. She is currently the chair of both boards. In addition, while practicing, she regularly wrote and presented on developments in and application of the law.
Judge Forbes graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1992. She served first as an associate editor on the law review and then as Executive Notes Editor. Judge Forbes majored in public policy at Cornell University, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
Judge Forbes is excited to bring her passion for and love of the law to the Eighth District Court of Appeals.
Judge, Franklin County Court
Hon. Daniel R. Hawkins is a judge for the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) in Ohio. He was elected to the seat on November 6, 2018.
Prior to his election, Hawkins presided as a judge in the Environmental Division of the Franklin County Municipal Court, a position he had held since 2013.
He received a B.S. in criminal justice from Bowling Green State University in 1998. Hawkins went on to complete a J.D. at Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law in 2001.
After graduating from law school, he began his legal career as an assistant prosecuting attorney with the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. During his tenure there, Hawkins was promoted to director of the Special Victims Unit in 2003. In that role, he prosecuted violent crimes involving women and children as victims, including homicides, sexual assaults, child abuse, human trafficking, and internet child exploitation. In addition, Hawkins was tasked with managing fellow prosecutors in the SVU and was credited with conducting several jury trials including six death penalty cases. He remained in that capacity until joining the Municipal Court bench in 2013.
His memberships have included the American Judges Association, the Ohio Judicial Conference, the Association of Municipal County Judges of Ohio, the Ohio State Bar Association, and the Columbus Bar Association.
Hawkins is a married father of three.
Judge, Hamilton County Courts
Hon. Megan E. Shanahan is a judge for the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) in Ohio. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor John Kasich on March 6, 2015 to fill the vacancy created by the Hon. Ralph E. Winkler after his election to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Probate Division.
Prior to her appointment, Shanahan had presided as a judge for the Hamilton County Municipal Court, a position to which she was elected in 2011.
She received a B.A. in political science from Kent State University in 1995. SHanahan went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2000.
After graduating from law school, she began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor with the Butler county Prosecutor’s Office, where she served in the appellate, municipal, and trial divisions and prosecuted cases involving the violation of the obscenity law as well as child pornography cases. In 2005, Shanahan moved to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. During her tenure in that position, she prosecuted child predators and served in the Felony Trial Division.
Her legal career also included acting as a prosecutor for the Mt. Healthy Mayor’s Court.
Shanahan received the Peggy Caldwell Award ini 20009.
From a civic standpoint, she has been a supporter of the Cincinnati Living Hope organization which provides transitional housing or homeless women and children.
She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, the youngest of eight children. At the time of her appointment, Shanahan and her family resided in Cincinnati.
Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals
Elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals – Eighth Appellate District in 2006 and twice reelected, Judge Melody Stewart has over 30 years of combined administrative, legal, and academic experience in a number of private and public settings. She has been an administrator for a healthcare management company, a music teacher, a civil defense litigator, and a law school administrator and professor. She served as the Administrative Judge for the Court of Appeals in 2013.
Judge Stewart earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati; her law degree as a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University; and her Ph.D. as a Mandel Leadership Fellow at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
After practicing law as an assistant law director for the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, Judge Stewart worked as a lecturer, an adjunct instructor, and an assistant dean at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law before joining the faculty. Her primary teaching areas were ethics and professional responsibility, criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal research, writing, and advocacy. Additionally, she taught at the University of Toledo College of Law, at Ursuline College, and was Director of Student Services at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law.
Judge Stewart has served on many boards of trustees and been a member of various professional, educational, civic, and community organizations. She also served as a commissioner and chair of the Board of Planning and Zoning for the city of Euclid. Recently Judge Stewart served as a member of the Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee. She is currently a member of the board of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Judicial College and is chair of the Ohio Capital Case Attorney Fee Council. Judge Stewart is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Ohio, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Senior Legal Fellow, Courts and the Constitution, Legal Policy Center, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Senior Legal Fellow of Courts and the Constitution at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy Group, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Mark Behrens co-chairs Shook's Washington, DC-based Public Policy Practice Group and is a leading national expert on civil justice issues with over thirty years of experience. A substantial part of his practice is working to improve the civil litigation environment through state and federal legislation; in the courts through amicus curiae briefs; through legal scholarship and judicial education; and in the court of public opinion.
Mark is actively involved in civil justice reform efforts at the federal and state levels. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures on behalf of business and civil justice organizations. Mark also has an active amicus brief practice specializing in tort liability and civil justice issues. He has authored or co-authored over 150 amicus briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations. In addition, Mark routinely files comments on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations regarding potential changes to federal and state court rules. He chairs the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Civil Justice Response Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ).
Mark is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He received his J.D. in 1990 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Executive Director, Ohio Dental Association
David J. Owsiany is the executive director of the Ohio Dental Association and a past president of the Columbus Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.
He has served as CEO of a statewide health care association, president of the Buckeye Institute, chief of policy for the Ohio Department of Insurance, judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court, and staffer on the United State Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Owsiany has written dozens of articles on legal and public policy issues for various publications, including the University of Toledo Law Review, the Federalist Society's State Court Docket Watch, Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Crain’s Cleveland Business, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Owsiany received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Panel 1: State Supreme Court Candidate Forum
Joseph T. Deters, Michael P. Donnelly, Lisa Forbes, Hon. Daniel R. Hawkins, Megan E. Shanahan, Melody Stewart, Christopher J. Walker
Featuring: Hon. Joseph Deters, Justice, Supreme Court of Ohio Hon. Michael Donnelly, Justice, Supreme Court of...
Ohio Supreme Court Holds That the Courts, Not State Agencies, “Say What the Law Is.”
Zack Smith
In a recent opinion by Justice Patrick DeWine, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed that...
Philadelphia Tort Litigation: Forum Shopping and Venue Reform
Mark A. Behrens
The Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy initiatives. Any expressions...
The Rise and Fall of Lead Paint Litigation in Ohio
David J. Owsiany
Over the last four years, Ohio has experienced a significant amount of activity related to...