About CBA
Kentuckian Schworer Inducted as 116th President;
Area Attorneys Honored at Bar Association's Annual Meeting
At the annual meeting of the Cincinnati Bar Association on May 9, Philip J. Schworer was inducted as the organization's 116th president. The event also included awards for members of the legal community.
Philip J. Schworer is a member of the environmental law department of Frost Brown Todd LLC. He represents business and industry in all aspects of environmental, health and safety issues. In addition to his law degree from the Salmon P. Chase School of Law at Northern Kentucky University, he has a bachelor of science degree in biology and a master of science degree in environmental health from the University of Cincinnati, where he also did master level work in environmental engineering.
The Crescent Springs resident has a long and extensive service record with the CBA since he first became involved with the Bar's Environmental Law Committee during his last year of law school. After he graduated at 31, he worked on continuing legal education programs, participated on the Committee on Committees, served as the chair of the Environmental Law Committee and was selected for the third Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers class. In 2000, he contributed his environmental engineering skills to the CBA, overseeing the environmental due diligence review for the current Cincinnati Bar Center building. Schworer also assisted in negotiating environmental terms and conditions for the acquisition contract.
Outside the Bar, Schworer is committed to a variety of civic and charitable organizations. He is a graduate - and alumni association member - for both Leadership Cincinnati and Leadership Northern Kentucky. He is involved on the board level for the Redwood Rehabilitation Center and has served as the chair of the Northern Kentucky United Way Campaign. Schworer is also involved in the Just the Beginning Foundation, a group that increases the number of minority students entering the legal profession.
Schworer and his wife, Lynn, have three adult sons.
At the annual meeting, the following members of the CBA were honored for their accomplishments:
Daniel J. Hoffheimer of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP was the recipient of the Trustees' Award for outstanding service to the Cincinnati Bar Association, the legal profession and the community. The former president of both the Cincinnati Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association, Cincinnati Chapter, Hoffheimer concentrates his law practice is concentrated in estate planning, trust and probate law, and related issues. He earned his bachelorÕs degree from Harvard College and his law degree in 1976 from the University of Virginia Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Virginia Journal of International Law.
Hoffheimer is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and is Board Certified as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law by the Ohio State Bar Association Specialty Board. In addition, Hoffheimer currently serves on the boards of BRIDGES for a Just Community (formerly the National Conference for Community and Justice), the Cincinnati Bar Foundation, the Federal Bar Association, Cincinnati Chapter, and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He serves as legal counsel to The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and serves or has served as legal counsel to many charitable and non-profit organizations and political campaigns, including two candidates for president of the United States, and as legal counsel to the Cincinnati AIDS Commission. He formerly served as lecturer in law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, chair, director or officer of other arts organizations, religious institutions, and health and social service agencies. He also served on the Democratic National Committee Commission on the presidential election in Ohio in 2004.
Hoffheimer is a graduate of Leadership Cincinnati, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award. He was appointed by the Chief Justice of Ohio to the Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness and by the Mayor of Cincinnati to the Advisory Board for Consumer Protection. He was also appointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to the Merit Selection Panel for the Appointment of Bankruptcy Judges. He was named Outstanding Volunteer of the Ohio State Bar Association, and he was appointed by the deans of Ohio's eight law schools to the Institute on the Future of the Legal Profession.
Hoffheimer and his wife, Lee, are the parents of four grown daughters.
Kent Wellington of Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP received the John W. Warrington Community Service Award for outstanding volunteer service. Wellington volunteered with the Young Lawyers' Section of the CBA, serving on the Board of the YLS beginning in 1993 and as the Section's Chair in 1997-98. In the mid-1990s, Wellington began mentoring local students and in 1997, while Chair of YLS, WellingtonÕs class founded the YLSÕs Mentoring Committee. Besides various CBA boards, Wellington has been active on the boards of several other community service organizations including the Arc-Hamilton County (MR/DD), Kids Voting of Southwestern Ohio, Out of the Crossfire, Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church, and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, where he currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Far more than board service, Wellington's passion for mentoring is demonstrated through his sustained relationships with his mentees -- including two young men he now works with. One of Wellington's first mentees became the first person in his family to graduate from college. He now is a successful husband, father, employee in the local justice system, friend, and, just as importantly, a mentor himself to two young students in Madisonville. Wellington credits the support of his family, who participate in many community service activities with him, including his children Robby, 13, and Angeline, 10, and his wife, Karen, who died in July 2007 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. Over the past year, inspired by Karen, Wellington helped establish the Karen Wellington Memorial Foundation for LIVING with Breast Cancer in hopes of helping women living with breast cancer to focus more on the living and less on the cancer.
James R. Adams of Frost Brown Todd LLC was honored with the John P. Kiely Professionalism Award for the highest degree of professionalism, civility and ethical standards. A graduate of Denison University and Northwestern University School of Law, he has represented clients in a wide variety of complex civil, business and commercial class actions and has been significantly involved as trial counsel and otherwise in the Beverly Hills fire litigation, Chem-Dyne, Fernald, Home State, the Cardinal Joseph Bernardin allegations, the Reds' litigation in the days of the Big Red Machine, and other cases.
Adams serves as a mentor and teacher to law students and young lawyers as an adjunct faculty member at the Chase College of Law and the University of Cincinnati College of Law and as an instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA), and recently as a mentor for the Ohio Supreme Court's Pilot Mentoring Program. Adams serves as a trustee and officer of the Kenton County Library, Interact for Change, and previously with Prospect House, Legal Aid, Ohio Parents for a Drug Free Youth, Cincinnati Works, Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Historic Southwest Ohio, and other non-profit agencies. He also serves the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington in many capacities and is a member of the House of Bishops' Task Force on Property Disputes. He is a long-standing member of the Grievance Committee of the Cincinnati Bar Association and is a frequent lecturer on substance abuse, professionalism, and various litigation topics. He has served in a variety of administrative positions at his firm including his present service as a member of the firm's Ethics Committee.
Adams resides in the Riverside Historic District of Covington with his wife Judith. They have three children and three grandchildren.
John W. Eilers of Wood & Lamping LLP was named the Volunteer Lawyer of the Year for exemplary pro bono legal service to low-income clients through the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Eilers practices in the areas of estate planning and probate and has served as a volunteer with the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) since the VLP began in 1982. In each of those 25 years, he has accepted at least two VLP cases. A graduate of Chase College of Law and an OSBA Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, Eilers volunteered in 2007 to be back-up attorney for all wills, estate and guardianship VLP matters. He reviews requests for legal assistance, and identifies issues and provides guidance to VLP attorneys when requested. Eilers also serves on a sub-committee of the 1st Judicial District Pro Bono Taskforce Committee, which is working to establish a VLP wills and estate planning clinic for low-income clients in Southwest Ohio.
Eilers is a member and past Chair of the Estate Planning and Probate Committee of the Cincinnati Bar Association, past member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio State Bar Association Estate Planning and Probate Section, and a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council.
The following were sworn in as trustees:
Susan Bailey-Newell
Erin Cunniff Childs
Wigdan Jreisat
Dale A. Stalf
John P. Tafaro
The Cincinnati Bar Association, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest and largest metro bar associations in the nation. Its mission is to maintain the highest professional standards among attorneys, to enhance the professional competence of attorneys, to improve the administration of justice, to serve the needs of members, and to provide law-related service and education to the public.
