Marv Robon graduated in less than four years from Bowling Green State University with a business degree and went right into law school with a partial scholarship. His class at the University of Toledo Law School had four members, including himself, in the top twelve of the Ohio State Bar Exam. During his earlier years, Mr. Robon did a substantial amount of litigation and tried a number of jury cases to conclusion. He then became more interested in real estate law and business matters and did everything from limited partnership syndications to industrial development revenue bonds. However, the challenge of trial work was missing; so by the mid-1980's, he decided to do both litigation and business matters. He has handled a number of high-profile cases, including the sale of the Commodore Island Condominiums where Owens-Corning’s World Headquarters is located today; a substantial wrongful death electrocution case that was successfully concluded during the jury trial; a very successful result in a medical helicopter crash that severely injured the nurse and went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, an insurance embezzlement case where more than $2,300,000.00 was collected. He negotiated for the sale of a business to the City of Toledo who wanted to eminent domain the property for the new Jeep plant location in Toledo involving several million dollars. He also obtained an award for a bank of almost $3,000,000.00 by the U.S. Court of Appeals against the United States Government. In the past several years he’s tried twenty one jury trials with a 18-3 record. One of the jury cases set a record for a verdict of over $2,500,000.00 in the small town of Wauseon, Ohio. He now is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Club of plaintiff attorneys. Recently, he was named an Ohio Super Lawyer by the Cincinnati Magazine. The Toledo City Paper named him the Best Attorney in Toledo for 2011 & 2012. Martindale-Hubbell named him a preeminent attorney for 2016. He just was named in the Top 10% of attorneys in the United States. This past year he handled a case for a rancher in Cheyenne, Wyoming, against the US Government for causing a forest fire. The result was one of a very few times the government LOST because they have immunity. The result was in 7 figures! He also had a $1,000,000.00 jury verdict in Wood County against Toledo Edison. In 2007 the Ohio Legislature modified the eminent domain law to provide that if the jury verdict is more than 1.5 times the state’s offer, attorney fees can be awarded. Marvin received an award of attorney fees in excess of $250,000.00 recently as a result of that statute and it is believed that that is the first award in Ohio under that new statute. Since then he has collected more than $400,000.00 in legal fees from government or quick-government entities. In addition to his business practice, he currently is working on matters involving financial problems for commercial real estate owners, eminent domain matters against the Ohio Department of Transportation as well as other governmental entities and pipeline companies, and several shareholder and construction disputes, bad faith insurance claims along with some substantial injury and wrongful death cases. In 2014, he successfully argued before the Ohio Supreme Court on an issue of a constitutional taking of property by a governmental entity. He is currently handling injunctions, appeals, partnership disputes, eminent domain pipeline cases and shareholder disputes. Mr. Robon is a member of the Ohio State, American, and Toledo Bar Associations, as well as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He attended the 1990 Moscow Conference on Trade and Economic Law in the Soviet Union which involved teaching Russian attorneys about America’s property system, the 1988 Trade and Economic Law Conference in Japan, and the China Conference in 1987. Marv’s motto is “If it can’t be done, give us a try.” He works out regularly, jogs, takes pilates, is an avid golfer and enjoys both tennis and gardening. Marv and his wife Nancy have three grown children, all with advanced degrees.

Steven concentrates his efforts on Social Security disability law to assist those most in need. He helps his clients maneuver through the complicated landscape of Medicaid and Medicare and makes sure they have the proper access, knowledge and resources for obtaining the medical treatment they need. Plus, he has a successful record of ensuring his clients receive the benefits and awards they deserve. Because Steven believes that the disabled are the group of Americans who have the least political say, he strives to be their voice – even beyond their legal cases. He does this by actively serving on the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives, which plays a large role in shaping the policies of the Social Security Administration.

Cincinnati personal injury lawyer Shawn M. Stepleton has dedicated his career to protecting the rights of injured men and women. After graduating, with honors, from the Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law, Shawn established his law practice in the Cincinnati area. Over the years, he has recovered millions of dollars for his clients in a variety of personal injury cases. Shawn believes that you, as a client, are entitled to accessible, responsible, and reliable service. You can rest assured that Shawn will always give your concerns his personal attention, whether by meeting you at your convenience or by returning your calls promptly and consistently.

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.