News
16 Vorys Attorneys Included in the 31st Edition of Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year"
16 Vorys attorneys have been named 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers. Each year, only a single lawyer in each area in each community is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” According to Best Lawyers, lawyers being honored as “Lawyer of the Year” have earned a high level of respect among other lawyers in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, professionalism and integrity. The Vorys lawyers and their selections are listed below:
COLUMBUS
- Daniel J. Clark has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Labor Law – Management. He has significant experience with ERISA litigation, employment discrimination cases, wage and hour class actions and collective actions, collective bargaining and traditional labor disputes. Dan has lectured on topics relating to harassment training, employee relations, workplace investigations, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
- David W. Cook has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Immigration Law. His practice focuses on the representation of businesses and individuals in all areas of immigration and naturalization law. Dave is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He serves as chair of AILA’s Online Course Review Committee. He also frequently presents seminars dealing with employment-related visa and immigration matters and employment-related immigration compliance.
- John J. Kulewicz has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Appellate Practice. John is co-chair of the firm's appellate practice subgroup. He has argued cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Ohio and federal and state courts of appeals. His practice focuses on civil litigation and appeals. John’s experience includes a wide range of appeals involving constitutional, statutory, regulatory and common law issues; the trial of numerous cases; and leadership of the pretrial discovery and motions efforts in civil actions. In addition, he has served at the request of federal and state courts as pro bono counsel for indigent clients in several actions presenting significant questions of law.
- Judith L. Marsh has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Franchise Law. She has more than 20 years of experience representing large, national retailers and consumer brands. Although her focus is on corporate, commercial, franchising and distribution, and finance transactions, she strives to serve these companies as a strategic partner to help them reach their business objectives.
- Karen M. Moore has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Litigation – Trusts and Estates. She has spent more than 40 years counseling clients regarding the thoughtful design and implementation of their estate plans. Karen focuses her practice on a full array of services in estate planning and administration, emphasizing the drafting of wills and trusts with related estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning; administration of estates and trusts; and litigation involving trusts and estates. Karen also advises trustees on their fiduciary duties in administering trusts. In addition, she counsels numerous fiduciaries and estate and trust beneficiaries in resolving disputes before litigation arises and serves as counsel in fiduciary litigation matters in court.
- William G. Porter has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Bet-the-Company Litigation. For over 35 years, Bill has led trial teams, litigated and tried a wide variety of cases on behalf of public and private corporations and their directors and officers, including class actions and injunctions in federal and state courts. As lead trial lawyer, he has litigated on diverse legal topics, including products liability, health and patient care, corporate, banking, fiduciary and commercial matters. Bill has tried more than 40 jury and bench trials and has appeared multiple times before the Ohio Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for Sixth Circuit and numerous state courts of appeal.
- D. Scott Powell has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Tax Law. Scott chairs the firm's Strategic Operations and Planning Committee. He has more than 30 years of experience as a federal tax, aviation and transactional attorney and is the former chair of the firm’s probate and tax group. He now works closely with Vorys eControl. Scott also has expertise with respect to the structural, ethical, financial, operational and tax aspects of law-firm ancillary businesses.
- Gregory D. Russell has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Energy Law. Greg chairs the firm’s energy group. For more than 25 years, he has been advising producers and pipeline operators in Ohio on business and regulatory matters, ranging from asset transactions to unit operations and development, to leasehold and royalty disputes. Greg's practice frequently involves appearing before state and federal courts and regulatory agencies.
- Kristin L. Watt has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Environmental Law. Kristin chairs the firm’s environmental group. Her practice is results-oriented and focuses on environmental compliance and counseling, enforcement defense and order negotiation, environmental audits, permitting issues and Brownfield redevelopment. She counsels clients with their due diligence in business and commercial real estate transactions and assists with contracting provisions related to each. Kristin has worked extensively in the areas of solid and hazardous wastes, petroleum underground storage tanks, NPDES permits, wetlands and environmental investigation/remediation.
- Nina I. Webb-Lawton has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Columbus Lawyer of the Year in Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Defendants. She has litigation experience in a broad range of areas, including toxic tort defense, employment, contract litigation, antitrust and appellate work. She has also advised clients on the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act. Nina has spoken on the application of House Bill 292, Ohio’s asbestos reform legislation, and appellate law matters.
AKRON
- J. Bret Treier has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Akron Lawyer of the Year in Corporate Law. Bret is the managing partner of the firm’s Akron office. His practice focuses primarily on representing public and significant private companies, which he counsels regularly on a broad range of matters involving acquisitions, dispositions and other transactions, corporate and board governance, securities law compliance and reporting, including executive compensation and disclosure issues, and public offerings of debt and equity securities. Bret is particularly experienced in representing public financial institutions and plastics manufacturers, and multi-generational family-owned businesses.
- Mark A. Watkins has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Akron Lawyer of the Year in Trademark Law. Mark provides IP counsel to many Fortune 1000 companies across the U.S. and around the world, helping companies create IP strategies for the procurement and protection of their IP rights. He has experience in evaluation and counseling concerning intellectual property rights acquired or divested in mergers and acquisitions; and in evaluation, counseling and negotiations on behalf of clients concerning transfer of intellectual property rights, including assignments and licenses. Mark has participated in the enforcement and defense of a wide range of intellectual property matters, including patent, trademark and copyright infringements, and misappropriation of trade secrets. His experience in the entertainment industry is extensive. He has represented a variety of celebrities and athletes in the areas of product endorsement, brand licensing, development and protection of celebrities as brands, as well as in the enforcement of trademark and brand infringements worldwide.
CLEVELAND
- James J. McMonagle has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Cleveland Lawyer of the Year in Arbitration Law and Mediation Law. He has been involved with the mediation and arbitration of complex cases throughout the United States, including tort business, securities and employment litigation as well as unwinding and restructuring businesses as a result of unexpected market changes. Jim also assists health care and other corporate entities in strategic planning. He has spoken across the country on asbestos litigation and has also been a frequent lecturer to judges on a state and federal level. Presentation topics included product liability, employment law, mediation techniques and other areas.
CINCINNATI
- Kent A. Britt has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Cincinnati Lawyer of the Year in Litigation – ERISA Law. His practice is focused on business and commercial litigation. Kent has significant experience representing clients in complex commercial, banking, insurance, construction, employment, ERISA and shareholder derivative and fiduciary duty litigation. Kent has presented on the issues of alternative dispute resolution, law for design professionals in Ohio, fundamentals of construction law, construction contracts, public competitive bidding and contracting in Ohio, ESI and e-discovery, lender liability and consumer financial services law.
- Hani R. Kallas has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Cincinnati Lawyer of the Year in Banking and Finance Law. Hani is chair of the firm’s finance, energy and real estate group and is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. He has extensive experience representing regional and national banks, insurance companies, finance companies, BDCs and SBICs in structuring and documenting loan transactions, with an emphasis in bilateral and syndicated middle market, asset based and leveraged loan transactions, as well as workouts and restructurings arising therefrom. Hani also represents several manufacturing and service businesses on a variety of matters as "outside general counsel."
- Elizabeth E. W. Weinewuth has been named the 2025 Best Lawyers’ Cincinnati Lawyer of the Year in Litigation – Trusts and Estates Law. Her practice focuses on controversies related to wealth transfer, including estate, trust, real estate and closely-held business disputes, and the exercise of fiduciary duties by trustees, executors, administrators, guardians and powers of attorney. She represents both corporate and individual trustees and beneficiaries, guardians and other individuals in both probate courts, common pleas courts and appellate courts throughout Ohio as well as the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Beth also handles probate administration at all asset levels and advises clients concerning trust administration, helping to avoid controversy before it arises.
2025 BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA®
126 Vorys attorneys were included in the 31st edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and 48 Vorys attorneys were named to the 2025 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America list. Click here to see a full listing.
About Vorys: Vorys was established in 1909 with just four attorneys and has grown to nearly 375 attorneys in 10 offices in Ohio, Washington, D.C., Texas, Pennsylvania, California, London and Berlin. Vorys currently ranks as one of the 200 largest law firms in the United States according to American Lawyer magazine. Learn more at vorys.com.
