John Lavelle | Athens Litigation Lawyer

Lavelle was born in Athens, Ohio and attended Athens High School. He graduated in 1975. He was drawn to the South due to his long association with Tennessee Walking Horses. He attended College at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee majoring in Business (B.B.A., 1979) with a minor in Agriculture (Horse Science). While in college he was employed at Womack Stables and McLean Trucking Co. Some of the activities he was involved in include:

-  Noble Ruler (President) of the Beta Theta Chapter of ALPHA GAMMA RHO(AGR)
-  Sam Paschall Memorial Scholarship recipient
-  Vice-President of the Inter-Fraternity Council
-  Served as the University's mascot appearing astride a Tennessee Walking Horse at football games

Upon graduation from College he attended the Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama. The strong trial advocacy program and award winning Student Bar Association were major factors in his decision to attend law school at Cumberland. In law school, John was:

-  Elected Junior Class Representative to the Student Bar Association.
-  Selected as a member of the International Moot Court team and the Trial Advocacy Board.
-  Elected President of the Senior Class.
-  The ABA selected the Cumberland Law School as having the "Most Outstanding Student Bar Association in the Country" when he served on the board his senior year.

He returned to Athens in 1982 when he joined the firm of Lavelle and Goldsberry Co., L.P.A. In 1991, he started his own firm engaged in the general practice of law, with an emphasis on criminal defense, and plaintiff's personal injury actions in Southeastern Ohio. Over the years he has added associates and now offers a full range of legal services including more transactional and planning services. Throughout the majority of his career, he shared an office with his father William A. Lavelle (1925-2016)  who started practicing in Athens in 1952. They tried many cases together throughout Southeastern Ohio before William's retirement after sixty years of practice. In addition he has served as Special Counsel to five Ohio Attorney Generals, represented Hocking College from 1984-1995 and began as legal counsel for the Hocking Conservancy District in 1992. His practice includes Ohio and Federal Courts. In May of 2001, Lavelle was sworn in to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States with his brother, sister and father. Over the course of his 35 plus year legal career, Lavelle tried scores of jury trials in many areas ranging from Aggravated Murder with death penalty specifications, Eminent Domain, Personal Injury actions, and all other types of criminal cases throughout Southeastern Ohio. In 2010 with Rusty Rittenhouse as co-counsel, Lavelle obtained the highest recorded jury verdict in Athens County history which was well in excess of a million dollars as damages in a fraud trial that lasted over six weeks.

The love of wide open spaces and frequent trips to the Big Sky State of Montana led him to take the Montana Bar exam. He has been a member of the State Bar of Montana and licensed to practice in Montana since 1991. Some of his professional memberships include the American, Ohio and Athens County Bar Associations. As an avid horseman and competitor, he was elected as an Ohio director to the National Cutting Horse Association in Ft. Worth, Texas and serves on many committees with NCHA. In 2009, he was nominated to the board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency State Executive Committee by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, OH and served in that capacity during 2010 hearing appeals and performing other duties.  

Locally,  he is a member of many civic groups. Together with his wife Lora, he operates Lavelle Farms which is involved in many aspects of the horse and livestock industry.