Authored Articles

During 2015, the number of appeals to the Ohio Supreme Court from decisions of the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) declined from historical highs in 2014, but are still significantly above appeals from prior years.

The court reversed a Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) decision that denied a property tax exemption to a board of education that leased a 34-acre parcel of property to a farmer. The local board of education (BOE) acquired 154 acres to build a new high school.

The State of Ohio requires counties to reappraise properties for tax purposes every six years and update those values in the middle of that cycle. This cycle is not evenly distributed between Ohio’s 88 counties.

There are several ways in which a disgruntled beneficiary or disinherited heir can challenge a last will and testament or a trust.

It’s all over the news and it’s top of mind with bank regulators: “Cybersecurity.” What happened with Target, Home Depot and Wyndham hasn’t helped. The last several years have been fraught with news story after news story about those crafty hackers who find vulnerabilities in a company’s system and steal private information or even redirect funds. And despite all of our technological advancements, the escalation in successful hacking attempts has no end in sight. Call them hackers, fraudsters or good old-fashioned crooks, from computer-savvy teenagers to state-sponsored groups, they are not going away. And, unfortunately, they seem at times to be two steps ahead of the latest security software and security vendors that are offering you and your financial institution protection.

With an industry-wide focus on enterprise risk management, and with the particular vulnerability of banks to the adverse impact of “reputation risk,” it is important that banks understand and take appropriate steps to mitigate risks associated with internet defamation. Online reputation attacks, including internet defamation, are affecting all industries and professionals. Banks, –including community banks,– are not immune from being attacked and disparaged online.

Bank and thrift shareholders are “different.” Direct or indirect ownership or control of large blocks of stock in a bank or a thrift institution brings with it the need to be cognizant of complex state and federal laws and regulations that may well trigger applications with state and federal regulators to approve the ownership, and/or a proposed transfer of ownership, in advance.

Rodney Holaday, a partner in the Vorys Columbus office, and Paige Kohn, an associate in the Columbus office, co-authored an article for the Winter 2016 edition of the Columbus Bar Association’s Lawyers Quarterly. The article was titled “The Duty of Competence and Trends in E-Discovery.”

Jessica Knopp Cunning, an associate in the Vorys Akron office and a member of the litigation group, authored an article for The Whisper, DRI's Young Lawyers Committee Newsletter titled "A 'Drone’s Eye' View of State Laws Governing Drone Use.”

Jackie Ford, a partner in the Vorys Houston office and a member of the labor and employment group, authored an article for Texas Lawyer titled “Houston HERO Defeat Doesn't Mean End of Discrimination Protections for LGBT.”

Tom Fusonie, a partner in the Vorys Columbus office and a member of the litigation group, authored an article for Ohio Farmer on the government’s use of eminent domain.

Recently five federal agencies, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (collectively, the Agencies), issued much-anticipated joint final rules (the Final Rules) that establish minimum margin and capital requirements for registered swap dealers, major swap participants, security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants (Swap Entities) for which one of the Agencies is the prudential regulator (Swap Entities regulated by one or more of the Agencies are referred to as Covered Swap Entities).

Heather Kabele, a partner in the Vorys Houston office and a member of the litigation group, authored an article for International Law360 titled “FinCEN Expands Data Collection Geography Beyond Banking.”

California has taken the lead in enacting new comprehensive “green chemistry” laws aimed at reducing toxic chemicals found in everyday consumer products.

Minutes, if not seconds, is all it takes for someone to cause harm to another person on the internet. Whether a single posting on social media or another online forum, or a full-fledged harassment campaign consisting of numerous postings on various platforms, it is extremely easy today to cause damage to another’s reputation online.

There are three federal wealth transfer taxes: (1) the estate tax; (2) the gift tax; and (3) the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax.

Under what is known as the First Sale Doctrine, one who buys a trademarked good may ordinarily resell that product without infringing the trademark owner’s mark.

Executives from top businesses around the world have weighed in, and they have indicated that the top risk for their respective companies is their reputation.

Lisa Babish Forbes and Aaron Williams, attorneys in the Vorys Cleveland office, co-authored “Can Localities Use Ballot Power To Ban Oil And Gas Drilling?” for Appellate Law360.

Whitney Gibson and Jordan Cohen co-authored an article for the Bloomberg/BNA Electronic Commerce & Law Report titled “Favorable Ruling for Critics of Section 230 of the CDA in Washington Case.”