Our Attorneys & Lawyers practice with the highest standards of professionalism while handling cases throughout all 88 counties in Ohio. We provide aggressive and caring legal representation at an affordable rate. You will not see excessive legal retainers and you will not be billed for unnecessary work. We are efficient and thorough, which allows us to reach your goal in the quickest manner and for an affordable rate.

Mr. Perez has represented and delivered results for clients in matters involving: landlord tenant, breach of warranties, insurance coverage claims, property damage matters, intentional torts, mediation, negligence claims, dog and animal bites, business litigation, construction, libel slander defamation, civil fraud, the Ohio Consumer Protection Act, personal injury, premises liability (slip and fall), contract and agreement disputes, trespass and boundary disputes, Fair Credit Reporting Act and other civil matters.

Larry Huddleston was admitted to the Bar in 1977 and has been an estate planning attorney for more than 20 years. He was in the first class of Certified in Ohio as Specialists in Trust, Probate, and Estate Planning. He has taught estate planning in almost half the states in America to attorneys, accountants, physicians, and many others in groups from 10 to 1,000. He participates in several professional organizations from trade associations to "think tanks." He is rated "10.0 Superb" by AVVO.com and "AV Pre-eminent" by Lawyers.Com/Martindale-Hubbell. He is enthusiastic about his work and intends to keep at it for many years. Larry (or "C L" to his close friends) carries a single-digit golf handicap at Scioto Country Club, is a passable fly fisherman, an active pilot ("Air Gramps" to his grandsons), still enters ski races occasionally and sings bass in the Upper Arlington Lutheran Church choir. He is a graduate of Portsmouth (Ohio) High School, Muskingum College, and Capital University School of Law. Prior to starting his estate planning career, he was a general practice attorney, litigator, financial regulator, expert witness in "banker misbehavior" cases, and a financial institutions merger and acquisitions consultant. He lives in Upper Arlington with Debbie, his patient wife of 40 years. They have two grown daughters and two grandsons.

An experienced and skillful legal advocate, Jeremiah E. Heck is a founding partner at Luftman, Heck & Associates and has practiced law since 2003. Mr. Heck’s practice focuses primarily on consumer and real estate law. As an Ohio consumer law attorney, his practice is weighted most heavily on consumer law where he represents consumers’ rights, including claims based on unfair debt collection practice by creditors, settling claims with creditors, and claims against businesses for unfair or deceptive trade practices. Mr. Heck has been sought out for his knowledge of consumer law. He was interviewed and quoted by SmartMoney.com, a prominent online financial website, regarding his opinions on consumer rights issues. Mr. Heck’s results on behalf of consumers have been featured on national consumer law websites. Mr. Heck’s advocacy on behalf of consumers has earned him a reputation amongst opposing debt companies and law firms and his strategies have been discussed at their conferences. After graduating from Meigs High School in Southeastern Ohio, Mr. Heck joined the United States Army. He completed basic training as a combat engineer at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Mr. Heck was stationed at Camp Howze, Korea in the 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division from 1993 to 1994. He was then stationed at Fort Hood, Texas from 1994 through 1996 in the 2nd Armored Division and later in the 4th Infantry Division while holding the rank of Sergeant. Mr. Heck served three years in the Ohio National Guard as a Combat Engineer and three years in the West Virginia National Guard as a Diesel Mechanic. After ten years in the Army, Mr. Heck ended his military career and began study at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Legal Communications and a minor in Business Administration. Mr. Heck then pursued a Juris Doctorate from Capital University, graduating summa cum laude in 2003. While in law school, Mr. Heck was on the Executive Board for Capital University’s Law Review as Research and Notes Editor. As a part of this Executive Board, a scholarship was started to honor the Most Outstanding Law Review member, which continues to be awarded annually to this day. He also was the Teaching Assistant for Constitution Law and Criminal Law, which lead to his passion for teaching. Mr. Heck currently enjoys teaching Real Estate Law for the Capital University Law School’s Paralegal Program and General Practice, a third year law class, for the Capital University Law School. Mr. Heck’s recent accomplishments are numerous and varied. He was honored as the 2010 Super Lawyers Ohio Rising Star Attorneys. No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state of Ohio are named to the list. Mr. Heck was the only consumer law attorney selected as a 2010 Super Lawyer Rising Star Attorney for the State of Ohio. Mr. Heck has also received this honor in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In 2010, Mr. Heck climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. In 2012, Mr. Heck had the opportunity to run and finish the Great Wall of China Marathon. Outside of work, Mr. Heck enjoys playing softball with the law firm team and golfing. He is an avid reader and proud owner of Kili, a Siberian husky. He often participates in charity races benefiting dogs and frequently contributes to dog-related causes.

William Andrew Thorman is a practicing lawyer in the state of Ohio handling workers' compensation and Social Security matters.

Jacqueline Ferris MacLaren serves Columbus and the central Ohio residents with estate planning, estate and probate administration, wills and trusts, equine law, small business law, and real estate property law. Jacqueline began her legal career at the Franklin County Municipal Court as a law clerk. At the Franklin County Municipal Court, Jacqueline worked closely with the magistrates and judges while researching and drafting opinions on legal issues before the court. Jacqueline enjoys working with families and educating individuals on the estate planning process. Jacqueline’s personal time is spent with her family and horses. Jacqueline was born and raised with Arabian horses and continues to actively participate on the local, regional and national levels with the Arabian Horse Association and the National Show Horse Registry. Jacqueline’s career highlight to-date came in 2009, when she and her Half-Arabian gelding, Great Days of Honor, went U.S. Arabian and Half-Arabian National Champion in Half-Arabian Hunter Pleasure Maturity Horse. In addition to showing, Jacqueline and her family continue to breed and raise Arabian and Half-Arabian horses in Johnstown, Ohio. The MacLaren Law LLC office is located in beautiful New Albany, Ohio.

Stephen Dodd is a practicing attorney in the state of Ohio. He received his J.D. from Ohio State University in 1985.

Eric started Jones Law Group in 2007 right after he graduated from law school. He has extensive legal experience with Social Security Disability and the healthcare industry. Eric also served as Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney for 12 consecutive years. Prior to attending law school Eric served as Vice President ofr an Ohio hospital where he was responsible for physician contracting, recruitment and relations. During law school Eric was the Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Managed Care for O.D.J.F.S. where his responsibilities included designing, implementing, and regulating the statewide expansion of Medicaid Managed Care. Eric also served as legal assistant to the General Counsel of the Ohio State Medical Association. Currently, Eric devotes much of his practice Social Security disability, civil litigation and representing health care providers. Eric is a recipient of the Capital University Law School G.O.L.D. award. The G.O.L.D Award is given annually to a Capital University Law School JD “Graduate of the Last Decade” who has made significant achievements as an attorney and has made notable contributions to the legal profession and/or the Law School. Eric has proudly to served as a Board Member of the OhioHealth Foundation and as a member of the Community Board of COSI. Eric earned his bachelor degree from Ohio University (B.S., 1995) and continued his higher education by receiving both his Master of Business Administration and his law degree from Capital University.

Born in the tiny coal-mining community of Williamson and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, by blue-collar working-class parents who placed a premium on hard work, honesty, and personal integrity, Bernie Layne of Mani Ellis & Layne, PLLC learned from an early age that his path to success would have to be paved with over achievement. While both of his parents grew up in abject poverty that can only be understood or imagined by those who have experienced day-to-day life in ‘coal camp’ housing in southern West Virginia, they became acutely aware of the value and necessity of education and sweat equity as a means of rising above their circumstance. It is from this culture and environment that Bernie’s parents instilled in him, and his two sisters, to never forget where they have come from and to always use their God-given talents and abilities to help people around them who are disadvantaged, hurting, disabled, destitute, or who are being abused by those in a more powerful position than themselves in society. Growing up in Parkersburg, just across the river from Marietta and Belpre, Ohio, he gained a deep, abiding respect for the hardworking people on both sides of the border. Rising from the social position of an ‘underdog,’ it isn’t hard to understand how Bernie has come to embrace these roots by becoming a highly successful legal advocate and defender of the rights of injured working-class West Virginians and Ohioans. A Strong Competitive Spirit As you can imagine, it takes tremendous family support and lots of competitive spirit to become one of only a few college graduates in his family and to become the first lawyer in his immediate or extended family. That love for competition was introduced to him as a child, by his father, an accomplished sportswriter at the Williamson Daily News. Bernie developed a love for the game of basketball and baseball and eventually earned a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia. As a college student-athlete, Bernie was introduced to the importance of academic and athletic discipline, teamwork, handling success and overcoming failure. As his dream of playing professional baseball faded, his commitment to personal development and higher education strengthened. Before leaving UC, Bernie was named the Ivor F. Boiarsky Award Winner, which annually recognizes the top Political Science Student in the graduating class, won a statewide award for his senior thesis, in the area of Public Law Policy, on the pitfalls and environmental evils associated with an inadequate and corrupt strip mine permitting system in West Virginia, was voted by his peers as the Student Body President and was chosen by the administration to deliver the commencement address on behalf of his graduating class, while sharing the stage with the late Senator Robert C. Byrd. Inspired to help the disadvantaged Using his undergraduate success as a springboard, Bernie went on to attend graduate school at The Ohio University, where he received a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology. After graduate school, Bernie returned to Appalachia where he worked with elderly and disabled individuals through the Title 19 Medicaid Waiver Program in Southern West Virginia. The year spent working with catastrophically injured people through Title 19 firmed his resolve and commitment to make a difference in the lives of the hardworking citizens of this state. This experience made Bernie aware of the obstacles that face disabled and poverty-stricken individuals and the myriad of statutory and legal hurdles they face, while unable to afford adequate legal assistance to address their needs. Bernie’s disappointment in the legal system and its treatment of handicapped, disabled, and elderly individuals led him to attend law school at The University of Dayton School of Law where he graduated with his Juris Doctor in the Spring of 1999. After finishing law school, Bernie remained in Dayton as a judicial extern for The Honorable Barbara Gorman, the first female judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. In the years following his law school graduation, Bernie has remained committed to preserving the rights of injured and disadvantaged citizens of our state and has limited his practice to cases which involve people who have been injured due to the negligence of another person, corporation or governmental body. Throughout his career, he has successfully taken on big corporate asbestos producers who exposed plant workers and pipefitters to deadly and cancer-causing asbestos fibers. He has successfully confronted coal mining companies that deliberately injured workers through a neglect of OSHA regulations and state laws designed to protect this state’s workers. Further, Bernie has successfully resolved wrongful death cases involving children, medical malpractice and poorly designed products by large corporate interests who chose to place profits as a priority over the safety of our citizens. In 2021, Mani, Ellis & Layne, PLLC expanded to a new office in Columbus, OH. For Bernie, who earned both of his graduate degrees in Ohio and has many close family members in Columbus and the surrounding towns, this was a homecoming of sorts, an opportunity to advocate for hardworking people throughout both Ohio and West Virginia. Recognized by his peers Bernie’s success and achievement have been greatly rewarded as he and his partners have built an accomplished law firm at Mani Ellis & Layne, PLLC. His professional attributes and success have also been noticed by his trial lawyer peers. In 2005, he was given the Distinguished Service Award by the West Virginia Association for Justice (WVAJ), which is a group that represents the interests of the injured and disabled in West Virginia. Attorney Layne has been a member of WVAJ and the American Association for Justice for more than a decade. He is past president of WVAJ, serving from June 2013 to June 2014. He has also served on the WVAJ Executive Committee (nine years), the WVAJ Board of Governors and as a member of the LAWPAC organization. He was recently invited to join the prestigious, Southern Trial Lawyers organization and has been apponted to The Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center where he serves on its Executive and Building & Grounds Committees. Additionally, he served a two-year stint as a member of the West Virginia Bar Association’s Judicial Campaign Advertising Committee, which sought to regulate unfair, unethical and untruthful advertising during judicial campaign election cycles. In 2013, he was appointed to the University of Charleston Board of Trustees and served on the Executive and Outreach Committees within that board. He is now serving his twelfth year on the board. In 2014, he was named Alumnus of the Year at the University of Charleston. In 2017, he was appointed chairman of the Welch Challenge Campaign, an $8 million fund-raising initiative at the school. Also in 2013, Mr. Layne received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating attorneys can achieve from that organization. Only 2% of all practitioners nationwide earn that rating. In 2018, Bernie was selected to the West Virginia Super Lawyers list by his peers. Bernie has obtained several significant verdicts and settlements and has been granted membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. On a community level, Bernie recently completed a seven-year term on the Putnam County Career and Technical Center’s Healthcare Advisory Board, on which he worked with other community leaders to design, implement and guide the LPN Nursing Program at the school. His efforts in this area are consistent with his desire to work toward broad based community and rural health care initiatives which support healthcare for the underprivileged throughout our state’s communities.

If you are facing a family law matter such as divorce, you may be overwhelmed with all of the issues you have to contend with before you can move forward to the next chapter of your life. For over 30 years, Rebecca J. Stumler, Attorney at Law, has been helping clients throughout Ohio with a range of family law matters such as divorce, alimony, adoptions and more. I understand how important it is to reach positive outcomes on matters involving loved ones, and will put my years of experience to use for you. Since 1995, my law firm has represented clients throughout Ohio in family law matters such as: Divorce — My law firm handles divorces and same-sex divorces and can help you pursue fair results when it comes to child custody matters, child support orders, alimony awards and establishing paternity. After the terms of a divorce have been settled, I can help you file for a modification order if circumstances warrant a change in an existing custody or support order. Military divorce & spouses’ rights — I understand the unique considerations involved with military divorce & spouses’ rights. Whether you are serving in the military or married to someone on active duty, I’ll help you with the process of dissolving the marriage. Adoption — I assist families with all aspects of domestic and international adoptions. I handle the legalities of your adoption so that you can focus on welcoming your new family member. My goal is always to give my clients confidence in their future by delivering a successful resolution to their case.