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E. Jane Taylor retires from Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 26, 2017
During her 11-year tenure as director for pro bono and communications at the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation (OLAF), E. Jane Taylor worked with the Ohio State Bar Association to change the rules to allow attorneys to get CLE credit for pro bono assistance, was instrumental in the creation of a new emeritus pro bono attorney registration status and helped make it possible for military spouse attorneys to temporarily practice law in Ohio.
But on Sept. 29, Taylor retired from the position she said was “perfect for her.
“My favorite part of my job was working with legal aid lawyers who were in the trenches trying to solve serious life problems for people who had no where else to turn,” said Taylor.
David Kutik, president of the board of trustees at OLAF and a partner in the Cleveland office of Jones Day, said the nonprofit organization had not yet chosen a successor for Taylor.
“We will miss Jane greatly,” said Kutik. “She was a wonderful addition to the staff. She was instrumental in many positive changes designed to encourage pro bono work.
“When it comes to her commitment to helping provide legal services to Ohio’s most vulnerable, Jane is someone who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk,” he said.
Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation Executive Director Angela Lloyd said, “hers will be big shoes to fill.
“The most amazing thing about Jane was her successful collaborative spirit,” said Lloyd. “When she took on a project, she would dive right in and provide whatever support was needed.”
Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Taylor moved to Dayton when she was 13.
Taylor attended Kent State University, where she majored in journalism and minored in political science.
“I always loved to write and I was thinking about reporting, but by the time I graduated I was no longer sure reporting was for me,” Taylor said. “My older sister and a female cousin encouraged me to go to law school.”
Taylor moved to Akron while a 3L at The University of Akron School of Law.
Brouse McDowell partner Irv Sugerman first got to know Taylor when they were judicial clerks in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.
The two have stayed in touch since then. He said that Taylor’s commitment to the profession and access to justice is the “gold standard” to which all lawyers should aspire.
“Janie is simply one of the best people I have ever met,” said Sugerman. “She is dedicated to improving the judicial system and the ability of those less fortunate to be treated fairly.
“I am so grateful to be able to call her my friend.”
Taylor began her legal career in 1981 as an associate at Guy, Mentzer & Towne, which concentrated its practice in bankruptcy and commercial litigation.
She became a partner in 1990 and the firm, then known as Guy, Lammert & Towne, dissolved in 2006.
Taylor said she joined the Akron and Ohio State bar associations right after passing the bar exam.
She served as president of the Akron Bar Association from 1994 to 1995 and chaired the organization’s professionalism and bar applicants & students committees.
She also did a three-year stint on the Akron Bar Association Board of Trustees in the early 1990s and later sat on the bar association’s Commission on Judicial Candidates.
It was toward the end of her term as OSBA president that she heard about the opportunity at OLAF.
“I was interested in pro bono work and I put a lot of emphasis on it as president of the OSBA,” said Taylor. “It was through my work that I learned that David Ball was leaving OLAF.”
When she began at OLAF in August 2006, her title was associate director for pro bono and her duties included overseeing and providing pro bono resources to the state’s legal aid organizations, which serve all 88 counties. As time went on she started handling the communications.
Not long after she started her new position, the downturn hit, causing interest rates on IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts) and IOTA (Interest on Trust Accounts) accounts to plummet, which decreased the revenue available to OLAF to fund civil legal aid services for low-income and disadvantaged Ohioans.
In 2007, Taylor assisted in organizing a pro bono task force set up by the OSBA, which established pro bono committees in each appellate district.
While on the task force, Taylor helped propose and advocated for a Supreme Court rule change that now allows attorneys to receive CLE credit for their pro bono legal work for clients of recognized organizations serving low-income individuals.
She also joined with others to make it possible for military spouse attorneys to be eligible to be temporarily practice in Ohio while their spouses are stationed in the state and lobbied for the Supreme Court to adopt the new 2016 Emeritus Pro Bono Attorney Registration Status, which permits active or inactive attorneys to pay a reduced fee for a license that enables them to practice law only to perform pro bono legal services for clients of recognized organizations.
Taylor, who is currently living in the German Village neighborhood of Columbus, has two adult children--Colleen Bell Boby, an attorney who is senior counsel to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Patrick Bell, company manager for the New York City off-Broadway production of “Jersey Boys.”
Although she has retired, Taylor said she remains committed to pro bono work and will volunteer at The Legal Aid Society of Columbus.
She continues to serve on the OSBA Council of Delegates, which she began doing in 1996. Taylor is also a member of the OSBA Senior Lawyers Section and serves on the board of Operation Legal Help Ohio, which connects low-income military personnel and veterans in Ohio with volunteer attorneys.
Jeffrey Heintz, a partner at Brouse McDowell, who has known Taylor since law school, said he would be surprised if Taylor ever stopped doing pro bono work.
“Jane is one of the most consistently nice, considerate and selfless people I’ve ever met,” said Heintz. “She recognizes that there is a big disconnect in society between people who are in need of legal services and those that are eligible to receive them.
“Jane represents the characteristics that lawyers should possess—kindness, generosity and selflessness.”
“I’ve been so fortunate to have had a wonderful legal career first as a practicing lawyer in the Akron legal community and then as a statewide pro bono professional,” said Taylor. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”