Mr. Pinzone is a partner with MRR Law and focuses his practice on public sector law, employment law, and school law. He defends government entities such as counties, municipalities, townships, villages, social service agencies, and school districts. He has extensive experience handling litigation in state and federal courts relating to civil rights, employment, complex land use and zoning, and personal injury. John has successfully defended matters on behalf of political subdivisions, law enforcement agencies, and school districts involving claims of constitutional violations. He also has extensive litigation experience defending against constitutional claims involving jail inmates. John has successfully litigated lawsuits involving challenges to the constitutionality of governmental zoning for residential and commercial properties. He has also had the opportunity to review zoning and land use regulations and advise planning commissions, zoning boards and city council regarding the application of such regulations. John has successfully represented school districts and school district personnel in a wide variety of legal claims involving personal injury, civil rights, and educational regulations. He uses his significant experience in school litigation to provide preventative assessments and training. His litigation experience in this area allows him to perform independent, formal, and thorough investigations pursuant to Title IX and in relation to claims of discrimination and harassment. Prior to joining MRR, John worked as a staff attorney and administrative counsel for the Ohio Eleventh District Court of Appeals.

Mr. Climer focuses his practice on public sector law, employment law and labor law. He has considerable experience advising and defending governmental entities and their employees, including counties, municipalities, townships, school boards, park districts, and social service agencies. Jim currently serves as the Law Director for the Village of Oakwood. Jim also maintains a significant labor and employment practice serving numerous private and public organizations. Prior to joining MRR in 1991, Jim served as Assistant Law Director in the Civil Division for the City of Parma. His duties included advising city officials, acting as principal legal advisor to the City’s Safety Director, and drafting formal opinions, legislation, and contracts.

Mr. McLandrich focuses his practice on representing municipalities, including defending cases on behalf of police and public entities alleging violations of civil rights as guaranteed by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. For over 30 years he has handled matters including claims of jail suicide, police pursuit, false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful conviction, denial of medical care, excessive force by police officers including officer-involved shootings, and failure to properly train police officers. John represents civil defendants in federal and state courts throughout Ohio in addition to serving as lead trial counsel in both state and federal courts. He represents clients in class action matters of all kinds, including municipalities relating to class action sewer cases. John represents clients with respect to public records and open meeting claims and issues, including the unanimous landmark case of Rhodes vs. The City of New Philadelphia, 129 Ohio St. 3d 304 (2010) where the court ruled seeking a monetary forfeiture does not make someone aggrieved under the statute. John provides coverage counsel to public entity insurance pools and to insurance carriers regarding public entity claims. John’s appellate experience consists of briefing and arguing hundreds of matters, including cases before the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Districts and Ohio Supreme Court, including eight favorable decisions before the Ohio Supreme Court. He also has served as lead counsel arguing more than 100 public entity appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, including several successful qualified immunity appellate rulings on behalf of police officers and public officials.

Ms. Herman focuses her practice on commercial trucking and transportation law for clients including contractors, trucking companies and logisticians. Amy’s experience includes working on behalf of public entities in a wide array of municipal matters. She also represents clients in matters related to premises liability and commercial general liability cases. Before joining MRR, Amy defended insured clients in commercial trucking and product liability litigation. She also has extensive experience advising injured plaintiffs in personal injury matters and providing counsel as they navigated the civil litigation process.

Mr. Pilat focuses his practice on business and commercial law, and insurance defense. He is a Co-Chair of the firm’s Business & Commercial Law and Insurance Agents & Brokers practice groups. His experience and unique blend of skills includes significant work handling agent errors & omissions (E&O) coverage and litigation, coverage analysis, corporate compliance, commercial transactions, and employment litigation and counseling. He represents national and regional insurance agencies, agents/brokers, insurers, local and regional businesses and Fortune 500 clients in both state and federal courts and administrative proceedings George also has considerable experience with business matters concerning buy-sell agreements, mergers, sales, and acquisitions of agencies and businesses, real estate leases, and business loans and secured transactions. He has extensive knowledge related to purchase agreements, rights of first refusal and account ownership agreements, producer/solicitor agreements, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, and separation of partners, agents, and clusters. He has handled disputes with captive carriers and producers, evaluating and preparing agency procedure and employment manuals, and advising on compliance issues under state insurance law. George has been very active with the Insurance Board of Northern Ohio (IBNO) since its inception in 2001. His involvement has included serving as general counsel, project management on both local Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter’s (CPCU) and Northeast Ohio Health Underwriters Association’s (NEOHUA) annual conventions and working alongside the Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) national and state offices in analyzing and reporting on Ohio’s E&O claims activity and consulting on issues for member agents. Prior to joining MRR in 2013, George handled insurance matters for agents and insurers, commercial litigation, and business transactions at a smaller firm in Cleveland.

Mr. Scialdone focuses his practice on appellate advocacy in state and federal courts with an emphasis on employment law, constitutional torts (Section 1983), public entity defense, and insurance defense. He has handled more than 300 appellate cases in the Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio’s intermediate appellate district courts, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He routinely consults with trial attorneys on error preservation and pre-appeal strategy. Frank has prosecuted and defended original actions (e.g., mandamus, prohibition, etc.) and has submitted amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefings on behalf of clients and organizations, including the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys. Frank is one of the first attorneys to be certified as a specialist in appellate law by the Ohio State Bar Association. His trial practice focuses primarily on the defense of public entities and their employees in federal and state courts. Prior to joining MRR, Frank worked as a news reporter and magazine editor, covering issues related to the medical and construction industries.

Mr. Sipusic is recognized for his work in the fields of preventive assessment and civil rights law for education, notably in the areas of Title IX, harassment, discrimination and employment. David regularly advises clients on risk management and liability, campus conduct and employment issues. Throughout his career, he has successfully counseled and trained educational institutions on best practices for state and federal compliance, while also resolving civil rights matters in the state courts of Ohio, the Federal District Courts of Ohio and the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to his arrival at MRR Law, David served as Associate General Counsel for Youngstown State University, as well as the Chief Equity Compliance Officer and Title IX Coordinator for the University of Dayton and John Carroll University. In the area of K-12 education, David has also previously served as legal counsel for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the second largest public school district in the State of Ohio. As part of his Title IX efforts, David has worked successfully with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in negotiating and resolving various matters through its Early Complaint Resolution program, as well as the OCR’s investigation and Section 302 Resolution Agreement process. He has served as a featured Title IX panelist with the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) and as a member of the ModernThink advisory board on campus climate surveys. David’s ongoing work with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has enabled him to gain valuable insight and perspective on a number of Title IX related issues.