Leppla Associates has represented family and business clients in commercial and personal litigation for over 25 years. The firm also handles probate matters as well as malpractice, injury, environmental, real estate & zoning, corporate & contracting, business and land use claims in Ohio and Florida.

Dayton attorney Gary J. Leppla became the Ohio State Bar Association's (OSBA) president on July 1, 2008. He was officially recognized at the Association's Annual Convention in Columbus with the "passing of the gavel" from Rob Ware of Cleveland.

"These are among the most critical times for the system of Justice upon which this Republic was founded. Our top priority as the defenders of the Rule of Law must be to maintain an unflinching commitment to fairness and equality in society, in the courts and in the profession. We must be ever vigilant to immediately respond to attacks upon the fundamental principles of the justice system, including the constitutional right to jury trial, the sanctity of attorney-client privilege and the impartiality of the courts. The recent attacks we have seen, even from inside government, were once unthinkable. Education and outreach to the community is paramount," Leppla stated.

As president of the Ohio State Bar Association, Leppla plans to focus on energizing participation and education through outreach to the media, public and under-represented member groups, including promotion of the professional support and diversity initiatives through the OSBA. He intends to aggressively engage the public and media in a dialogue concerning the nature of the work undertaken by attorneys and judges in Ohio's system of justice.

"Important issues for the OSBA to tackle include the public's perception that campaign contributions influence judicial decisions in Ohio. We also need to provide the public with accurate information about how of the legal system operates and explain the role of lawyers and judges in that system. The Association can provide a significant public service by helping Ohioans better understand the duties, responsibilities and limitations placed on lawyers and judges as they carry out their sworn duties. The OSBA will continue to be proactive by engaging in public and private debate of these issues," comments Leppla.

Leppla, born in Cleveland and educated in parochial schools in the Dayton area, has nearly spent nearly 30 years in the litigation-oriented practice of law as the principal attorney at Leppla Associates, with continuous service to the public and profession throughout his career. He is a long-time member of the OSBA Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee. He has worked closely with Ohio's metropolitan-bar leadership, as an elected out-of-state member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors, as a continuing legal education speaker in multiple states, as president of the Dayton Bar Association and as chair of the Dayton Bar Association Certified Grievance Committee. He is a member of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers (OAJ), the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (AAJ), the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers (FJA) and the Miami Valley Trial Lawyers Association. Leppla is a fellow and trustee of the Ohio State Bar Foundation, a fellow of the Florida Bar Foundation and is past president of the Dayton Bar Foundation. He is also a newly elected member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation.

Leppla's professional activities include active casework for the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) and acting as chair of the Campaign for Equal Justice for Legal Aid and VLP. He was an early promoter of the Dayton Bar Association's Diversity Dialogue and was a founding advocate for the Equal Opportunities Law Section of The Florida Bar. Leppla has served three Ohio attorneys-general as special counsel, has been designated an Ohio Super Lawyer and is an AV-rated litigator.

Leppla earned his undergraduate degree (Phi Beta Kappa) and his law degree from The Ohio State University, and he serves on The Ohio State Marching Band's Board of Governors as its alumni legal chair. He has been an active member of the League of Women Voters for 25 years and is a life member of the NAACP. Non-legal activities include the founding of a newspaper, reclamation and restoration of a historic opera house, and appointment to a Judicial Nominating Commission by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.

The Ohio State Bar Association, founded in 1880, is a voluntary association representing approximately 25,000 members of the bench and bar of Ohio as well as nearly 4,000 legal assistants and law students. Through its activities and the activities of its related organizations, the OSBA serves both its members and the public by promoting the highest standards in the practice of law and the administration of justice.

Ohio Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Homeowners

In a decision announced January 17, 2008, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of homeowners represented by Leppla Associates in a land use dispute concerning efforts by a developer to place undersized lots in an existing subdivision. The Court reversed a procedural attack on a trial court decision by Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neil Bronson, which upheld the right of the Hunter, Ohio homeowners to control the use and size of neighborhood lots through private property convenants.

The developer now faces the prospect of dealing with third parties to whom lots were sold, as well as the homeowners, following a decision which effectively deems lot splitting and associated building development in the neighborhood to be wrongful.

In the decision authored by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, reaching a result which six of the seven Justices supported, the Court held, "there is no requirement... that the moving party must negate the nonmoving party's every possible defense..."  The developer had claimed that the homeowners impermissibly delayed in opposing a new development, yet failed to offer sufficient proof of the claim in the developer's own reply to a Motion for Summary Judgment filed on behalf of the homeowners by Leppla Associates.

Gary J. Leppla, who argued the case last November before the Ohio Supreme Court, commented, "This is a great victory effectively upholding the rights of the families we represented to control the development of their own neighborhoods, through use of responsible property covenants.

These homeowners have been patient, intelligent and dedicated in acting together, and hanging together, to oppose the change the developer has tried to wrongfully force on their immediate community. The Supreme Court cut through to the essential procedural reality, giving new life to the use of Civil Rule 56 on behalf of the proponent of claims. It minimizes the ability of a party defending a claim (which in this case was a counterclaim) to simply rely upon a litany of defenses without placing credible evidence before a court. This precedent will be of great benefit to any party attempting to efficiently cut through unsupported defenses."

The citation to the case is Todd Development Corp. v. Morgan, et.al. Slip Opinon No. 2008 Ohio 87. Opinion available at