Find Lawyers in Ohio, United States for Commercial Litigation
Practice Area Overview
Litigation increasingly occurs in various venues, from state and federal courts to private arbitrations and administrative hearings. Proceedings can involve business-to-business disputes or any number of government agencies. Understanding the motivations and outlook of each of the litigation participants is important for determining weak points to exploit and strong points that will persuade the audience in question. During the past decade, commercial litigators have seen a dramatic uptick in multidistrict and inter-disciplinary litigation, making the stakes higher, the cases more complex, the parties more numerous and the discovery more complicated and unwieldy. Firms that are able to develop and implement a creative legal approach to each individual problem, efficiently focus on the key legal and factual issues, and master and manage the various aspects of these complex matters will be the busiest in the years to come.
In the current challenging economic climate, commercial litigators are under increasing client pressure to keep costs in check, which has both sides testing the efficacy of alternative fee arrangements and the scope of reasonable discovery. Whether the “death of the billable hour” is ultimately realized, the keys to a commercial litigator’s success will continue to be strong client relationships, thought leadership, practical management skills, deep experience, and personal commitment.
Andrew has a history of representing corporate clients in sophisticated, complex, and sensitive matters in a wide variety of industries and disciplines. He has tried cases to verdict in Ohio, Florida, and California and has served as lead appellate counsel in the defense of a class certification denial. For the past 15 years, however, his focus has been in spearheading insurance recoveries for corporate policyholders in a variety of business sectors, under various state and international laws...
James E. Arnold is recognized as one of Ohio's top trial lawyers. He was recognized by Best Lawyers as Central Ohio's "Securities Litigation Lawyer of the Year" in 2012, as the "Bet-The-Company Litigation Lawyer of the Year" in 2013, and as the "Intellectual Property Litigation Lawyer of the Year" in 2014. Since 2001 he has consistently been recognized by Best Lawyers in multiple fields, including bet-the-company, personal injury (plaintiffs and defense), commercial, intellectual property and...
Brett represents insurers, lenders, transporters, manufacturers, and other business entities in all aspects of litigation in the federal and state courts, and before various arbitration venues. He has tried to verdict, before juries and courts, class actions, insurance, product liability, lender liability cases, commercial, trucking, real estate, and other business disputes. He has defended insurers in all aspects of commercial, life, health and disability coverage. He has tried or negotiated...
Jeffrey A. Brauer focuses his practice on litigation, construction law, and creditors’ rights matters. Jeff regularly handles complex financial, engineering, and technical disputes in state and federal trial courts and arbitrations. Jeff is experienced in addressing potential claims from development through discovery, mediation, trial, and appeal. Jeff is also often called upon to obtain emergency injunctive relief, such as enforcement of time-sensitive noncompete and nonsolicitation ag...
While fully engaged as Managing Partner of Buckley King, Brent Buckley counsels and represents financial institutions, private equity firms, lenders, businesses and executive management on business issues, complex and structured finance, workouts, asset-based lending, corporate internal investigations, and commercial litigation matters. Brent is nationally recognized for excellence in both corporate law and banking and finance litigation. He is named among the prestigious Legal Who's Who as o...
Jim Burke helps clients develop sound litigation strategies and execute on those strategies successfully to resolve corporate disputes. Jim’s practice focuses on complex corporate and commercial litigation, including both trial and appellate practice, in state and federal court. He has handled cases before courts in Ohio, Kentucky, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado and Delaware. He has significant experience in financial and transactional cases, c...
Erica L. Calderas has extensive experience representing commercial clients of varying sizes as plaintiffs and as defendants in complex matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Erica has a deep understanding of a wide range of litigation matters impacting businesses, including business torts, contract disputes, consumer protection claims, trademark infringement, employment disputes, fraud claims, enforcing and defending against claims regarding non-competition agreements and tr...
Joe Callow leads litigation matters on a national, regional, and local basis. Joe works primarily on complex litigation. He has experience in class actions/collective actions and multi-district litigation, as well as environmental, securities, IP, antitrust, and commercial litigation. Joe currently represents several state Attorneys General in complex litigation. Joe was one of the lead litigation counsel for the State of Ohio in its litigation against opioid distributors that resulted in an ...
Steve focuses his practice in the areas of business and complex litigation, construction law, patent and trademark litigation, employment litigation, probate litigation, dispute resolution and appeals. He has 43 years of experience in more than 60 trials (both jury and non-jury). Among his accomplishments, Steve was listed in the 2004-21 editions of "Ohio Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics magazine; in 2009 and 2017, Steve earned the distinction of being listed one of the Top 100 Super Lawy...
Steve Coffaro is a business lawyer who focuses his practice on commercial litigation matters, including corporate, intellectual property, environmental, employment and real estate related disputes. He represents both public and private companies and individuals and has actively represented clients in litigation matters pending in state and federal courts. He is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Steve has particularized expertise related to the...
Timothy J. Cole is a partner in the firm’s Litigation Practice Area in the Columbus office. His practice focuses on construction, complex business, commercial, class action, and contract litigation. He has significant experience in counseling large commercial clients related to potential litigation, including breach of contract, statutory and regulatory compliance, and general best business practices. Tim also has experience litigating employment discrimination, retaliation, wrongful di...
Rich Creighton is an AV rated trial attorney. His current practice is concentrated in general civil litigation, with particular emphasis on complex commercial, antitrust and tort litigation, including class actions. Over the past 20 years, he has served as lead plaintiffs class counsel in several class action cases, including antitrust price-fixing, fraud and consumer rights actions. In the business law arena, he has successfully represented a wide variety of clients in business tort, contrac...
Justin M. Croniser is an experienced trial lawyer who represents corporations, officers, and employees in complex commercial litigation and class-action lawsuits in state and federal courts throughout the United States. While Justin has represented companies and individuals in many different industries, Justin has considerable experience representing construction companies, healthcare insurers, and title insurance companies. Justin’s experience also includes a wide variety of types of c...
Daniel A. DeMarco represents creditors, both secured and unsecured, creditor’s committees, indenture trustees, trustees, receivers and debtors in numerous reorganization proceedings. He served as chair the firm’s Commercial Services & Restructuring Practice Group and was a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Dan represents secured lenders including The CIT Group, U.S. Bancorp Equipment Finance, Inc., Textron Financial Corporation, BMW Financial Services NA LLC, Foot...
Ted Dunn brings sophisticated strategy and extensive trial experience to his litigation practice. He represents businesses in complex disputes, including risk management, insurance coverage, contract disputes, professional liability, product liability, workplace intentional torts, and casualty and wrongful death cases. Ted also handles trademark infringement, trade secrets, unfair competition, and closely held entity disputes. Ted is licensed to practice law in Ohio, and is admitted to the Un...
Dubbed zealous and creative by opposing counsel, Aaron S. Evenchik specializes in construction and real estate law, where he represents clients in both transactional and litigation matters. His cross-practice technique allows him to help resolve disputes innovatively and effectively. Aaron’s experience with transactions and handling multiple first chair litigation/arbitration matters enables him to better understand the goal of the deal and draft transactional documents to avoid problem...
Greg’s practice encompasses a variety of litigation matters, including commercial disputes and the litigation of lender liability, insurance coverage, and consumer fraud claims. He has represented defendants in numerous class actions in state and federal courts. Greg has successfully challenged the unconstitutional aspects of Ohio’s medical marijuana law and successfully presented other arguments for cannabis companies in courts around Ohio.
Matthew K. Grashoff focuses his practice on construction law and commercial litigation and has experience in the areas of insurance coverage and appellate practice. Matt manages cases at all stages of the construction process, from bid disputes through project correspondence, scope disputes, change order disputes, alternative-dispute-resolution mechanisms such as dispute review boards and the ODOT step process, and lien and bond claims. He represents clients through all stages of litigation b...
Brad’s corporate, business law and mergers and acquisitions practice encompasses every stage in the life cycle of a business. Brad frequently works with clients on matters involving formation, organizational structure, owner/shareholder relationships, employment contracts, customer/supplier contracts, business succession, and related issues. Some of these issues carry through the life of a business, and Brad will assist in addressing those matters as the business grows. This includes gr...
Tom represents growing businesses at each stage of their development, and is regularly asked to serve as outside general counsel for his clients. In that role, Tom advises his clients with respect to innumerable legal issues, including regulatory compliance, corporate governance, contract negotiations, risk management, litigation and other day-to-day business issues. He often works with his clients to overcome short-term regulatory and financial uncertainty to achieve long-term success in dev...
Matthew D. Harper represents in a wide range of business, construction, and real estate disputes. He is a member of Eastman & Smith’s Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights, Business Litigation, Construction Law and Eminent Domain Practice Groups. Mr. Harper is admitted in state and federal courts throughout Ohio and Michigan and has appeared pro hac vice in business litigation in Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.