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Stark & Knoll adds new litigator in continued growth
BENJAMIN WHITE
Associate Editor
Published: July 3, 2013
Akron firm Stark & Knoll recently bolstered its litigation team with the hiring of Cleveland attorney Kathleen A. Hahner, who will focus on the firm’s employment and labor practice as a new associate.
“I’m really excited to work with some fantastic attorneys here at Stark & Knoll,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Hahner, who graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, previously worked for more than four years at mid-sized Cleveland creditor firm Javitch Block & Rathbone, where she gained experience in products liability, retail collection and subrogation.
“It will be a pretty big change,” she said. “I learned a lot and had a really good experience at my creditor-based firm, and it will serve as a good base for more complex litigation.”
The acquisition came a month after longtime northeast Ohio attorney Ronald Lembright retired after spending five months with the firm in an effort to transition his client base to Stark & Knoll.
Earlier this year, the firm hired young attorney Patrick O’Connor to the firm’s litigation department. He practiced as a trial lawyer in Sandusky for three years after graduating from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2010.
Stark & Knoll now consists of 28 attorneys after adding seven partners to the firm in the past four years. Venerated Akron attorney and recent Sir Thomas More Award recipient Orville Reed III joined the firm last June along with two other prominent partners from Akron cornerstone firm Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs.
With about a third of its attorneys selected as 2013 Ohio Super Lawyers or Rising Stars, the 28 year-old firm specializes in business services and litigation for small to medium-size businesses. It also stresses its employment and estate planning work and seven of its mergers and acquisitions specialists formed S&K Transitional Services LLC to serve as sellers’ advocates.