News

Mansour Gavin LPA is pleased to announce that Ken Smith has been elected to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2023. Focusing his practice on labor and employment, intellectual property, and business and general civil litigation, Ken has successfully represented clients at trial, arbitration, in front of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in unemployment hearings, and at other federal and state administrative proceedings. Outside of the courtroom, he assists companies with obtaining various commercial licenses, registers and protects their trademarks and other intellectual property, and helps draft and implement internal policies and procedures.

“Ken is an exceptional lawyer with considerable experience in his areas of practice and maintains a commitment to client service. I am thrilled to welcome him to the partnership and know his contributions will strengthen the firm” said Tony Coyne, Mansour Gavin President.

Equal to his depth of experience is his commitment to and support of local professional and community organizations serving as a board member and mentor to champion their causes.

Ken earned his J.D., cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and B.A., with high distinction, from Penn State University.

Mansour Gavin LPA is an established law firm founded in 1954 with offices in Cleveland and Independence, Ohio. Comprised of 21 lawyers, the firm provides a wide range of legal services to individuals and many successful privately held and publicly traded corporations.

Anthony J. Coyne ’87 will be inducted into the 2022 Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Hall of Fame on Friday, November 4. Coyne is President and Managing Partner at Mansour Gavin LPA.

With over 30 years of experience in urban affairs, Tony focuses his practice in the areas of business law, municipal law, zoning and planning, eminent domain, real property, and litigation. “At C-M Law, I learned to be a practicing lawyer. It’s that straightforward. At C-M Law, you don’t simply receive an ivory tower education in law; it’s more than that, you learn what it means to represent the rights of everyday citizens. I will always value that part of my education at C-M Law,” said Coyne in his nomination feature.

The CSU C-M Law Hall of Fame was established in 2017 to honor the outstanding contributions to the success and prestige of the law school by distinguished alumni, faculty, staff, friends and community leaders. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of the law school in 1897.

Mansour Gavin LPA is an established law firm founded in 1954 with offices in Cleveland and Independence, Ohio. Comprised of 45+ employees, including 22 lawyers, the firm provides a wide range of legal services to individuals and many successful privately held and publicly traded corporations.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Patricia “Patty” Keane who passed away unexpectedly earlier this month. Patty joined the firm in 2016 and was an integral part of the Mansour Gavin team, taking on numerous responsibilities and cultivated lasting friendships.

She found the funny side in everything and was tremendously loved by her family. We will all miss Patty more than words can express. Patty’s obituary can be viewed here.

Six Mansour Gavin lawyers were selected for inclusion in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers in America®, the legal profession’s oldest and most respected peer-review publication.

Anthony J. Coyne
Corporate Law
Real Estate Law

Brendon P. Friesen
Corporate Law

Timothy A. Boyko
Trusts and Estates

Jeffrey M. Embleton
Commercial Litigation

Bruce G. Rinker
Real Estate Law

Timothy T. Reid
Insurance Law

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers in America® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. More than 116,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote and include more than 17 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world.

Mansour Gavin LPA is an established law firm founded in 1954 with offices in Cleveland and Independence, Ohio. Comprised of 45+ employees, including 22 lawyers, the firm provides a wide range of legal services to individuals and many successful privately held and publicly traded corporations.

Mansour Gavin LPA has been awarded a 2022 Top Workplaces honor by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer Top Workplaces. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage, LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

“Companies need to authentically represent their brand to job-seekers,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “The employee experience needs to be on the mission-critical list. Leaders who embrace a people-first culture will benefit greatly. By giving employees a voice and showcasing your authentic culture through employer branding, organizations can attract those job seekers who complement their culture. Culture drives performance.”

ABOUT

Mansour Gavin LPA provides superior legal services and client-focused solutions for a broad range of clients in the areas of civil litigation, real estate and land use, labor and employment, estate planning and probate, intellectual property, environmental, and corporate and business law.

Through a collaborative team approach, we seek practical, value-added solutions for complex and routine legal and business issues for our clients of all sizes, including many successful privately held and publicly traded corporations.

Mansour Gavin proudly welcomes our 2022 summer associates: Kelley Murray, Savannah Gordon, and Natalie Browning. Mansour Gavin invites talented second-year law students to participate in a Summer Associate Program. Candidates are selected based on their outstanding academic performance and character, proven leadership and interpersonal skills, dedicated development of advocacy and legal skills, passionate commitment to the legal profession and community.

Summer associates become “part of the team” at Mansour Gavin. A designated mentor attorney provides personal guidance for each of them, while they work on a variety of projects with attorneys across multiple practice areas. Summer associates receive daily opportunities to acquire hands-on litigation and transactional skills that may include conducting legal research, drafting motions, memoranda of law, legal opinions, correspondence, motions, jury instructions, reports, case evaluations and articles, attending state and federal court proceedings, assisting with and attending depositions, and preparing for, participating in and observing trials.

The program is designed to introduce law students to the challenges of working in a law firm and to identify the skills entry-level lawyers need to launch a successful legal career.

Mansour Gavin LPA is an established law firm founded in 1954 with offices in Cleveland and Independence, Ohio. Comprised of 45+ employees, including 22 lawyers, the firm provides a wide range of legal services to individuals and many successful privately held and publicly traded corporations.

Ernest P. Mansour: 1931-2022

We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-founder, mentor, and dear friend, Ernest P. Mansour or “Ernie” as we all knew him.

Ernie was born and raised in Cleveland and was the younger of two children of Lebanese immigrants. He attended Saint Ignatius High School and then Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA, where he met his wife. Ernie earned his law degree from Western Reserve University and befriended his future partner, Michael Gavin. Ernie and Mike joined forces in 1971 and formed what is today the Mansour Gavin firm.

When asked why he decided to become a lawyer, Ernie said that growing up, it was engrained in him by his parents that he was either going to be a doctor or a lawyer. At the time, doctors still made house calls and going to someone’s bedside in the middle of the night didn’t appeal to him. Mansour stated, “my vision of a being lawyer was sitting behind a desk, putting my feet up, and answering the phone and so I decided to become a lawyer.” Ironically, for the next 60 plus years, Ernie never sat behind a desk with his feet up on it. In fact, only now has Ernie truly slowed down.

Ernie was married to his surviving wife Lois for 66 years. Ernie and Lois’ fondest memories were the times spent with their seven children and 14 grandchildren: Lorraine A. Houston (son-in-law Robert, grandchildren Ross, Reed, and Neal), Mark E. Mansour (daughter-in-law Susan, grandchildren Erin and Kyle), Carol E. Anton (son-in-law Arthur, grandchildren Brett, Brian, Paige, and Eric), Robert G. Mansour (grandchildren Jessica, John, and Evan), Laura T. Mansour, Thomas M. Mansour (daughter-in-law Caroline, grandchildren Emma and Burke), and Drew S. Mansour.

“Ernie was a pillar of the Cleveland community through his work and his philanthropy,” said Mansour Gavin President Tony Coyne. “On behalf of the Mansour Gavin family, we extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends, and those he touched through contributions to the legal community throughout his lifetime. Ernie was a great friend of mine. His commitment to this firm and his guiding values will forever be remembered.”

Ernie built a longstanding law firm built on trust and friendship, where clients and employees feel like family. Ernie was known in the highest levels of Cleveland’s business community for his sound advice, fierce representation, and intense dedication to his clients. He traveled the globe representing clients’ interests and in complex litigation. But what set Ernie apart was his loyalty to his friends, many of whom were his clients, and his unwavering support for any matter, big or small. Ernie was always the first to reach out when help was needed or to simply give an ear when the need arose. He enjoyed the practice of law for more than 60 years and he truly loved helping people. Even years after he stopped practicing law, Ernie was still usually the first one to arrive at the office, turning the lights on each morning. There is no doubt that the legacy Ernie Mansour created is far reaching and endures in the conduct of past and present attorneys of Mansour Gavin. His story demonstrates a valuable principle—the success and reputation of one is dependent on the success and reputation of all. We will all miss Ernie’s presence at the office each morning.

Mansour’s legacy will live on through family, friends, and the law firm he built and loved.

You can read Mr. Mansour’s obituary here.

On March 3, President Biden signed H.R. 4445 “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.” The bipartisan bill amends the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) to permit an employee alleging sexual assault or harassment to invalidate a pre-dispute arbitration agreement or joint-action waiver. Such arbitration agreements are typically found in employment agreements.

§402 details that “at the election of the person alleging conduct constituting a sexual harassment dispute or sexual assault dispute, or the named representative of a class or in a collective action alleging such conduct, no predispute arbitration agreement or predispute join-action waiver shall be valid or enforceable with respect to a case which is filed under Federal, Tribal, or State law and relates to the sexual assault dispute or the sexual harassment dispute.”

Plainly, if an employee signs an agreement to arbitrate employment-related claims at the onset of or during employment and later experiences sexual harassment or assault, the employee can choose to pursue his or her claims in court rather than through arbitration. Additionally, if an employee signs an agreement to pursue his or her claims only individually, and not as a member of a class action lawsuit, the employee may elect to dispense with that agreement and pursue claims on a joint basis with other alleged victims. The discretion to waive the agreement rests solely on the employee. The legislation also requires that courts, rather than arbitrators, determine whether H.R. 4445 applies to a given claim, even if the agreement at issue delegates that authority to an arbitrator. This is a considerable departure from U.S. Supreme Court precedent holding that under the FAA, parties to arbitration agreements could delegate the decision of whether a claim is arbitrable to the arbitrator.

The FAA amendment applies “to any dispute or claim that arises or accrues on or after the date of enactment.” Thus, while the bill could invalidate pre-dispute agreements entered prior to its enactment, it would not affect disputes that began prior to the bill’s enactment.

The practical effect is that employers will no longer be able to keep sexual assault and sexual harassment claims out of court through mandatory arbitration and should take action to update any arbitration agreements to comply with the legislative exception relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment claims. Employers should further prepare for any existing sexual assault or sexual harassment claims currently in arbitration to be moved to the courts if the employee so chooses.

Our Labor or Employment attorneys are available to assist in addressing any questions you may have regarding these developments. To learn more about these issues, please contact the Mansour Gavin lawyer with whom you usually work or any member of the firm’s  Labor or Employment group.

In tragic times of Russian aggression against Ukraine, we are witness to the unthinkable. Two members of the Mansour Gavin family have close ties to Ukraine. Tatyana Pishnyak and her husband are from Ukraine, where their family and friends still reside. Tim Boyko is of Ukrainian descent, both of his grandparents were born there, and he is actively involved with the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese in Parma.

We stand with the people of Ukraine and hope for an immediate end to this war.

To support Ukrainian humanitarian efforts, please consider contributing to one of the following organizations.

Cleveland Maidan Association – a local organization sending humanitarian help to Ukraine – https://www.clevelandmaidan.info/

Razom Ukraine – a U.S. organization sending humanitarian help to Ukraine – https://razomforukraine.org/razom-emergency-response/

Saint Josephat Eparchy – Provides food, clothing, shelter, and medical assistance to Ukraine – https://stjosaphateparchy.com/

#WeStandWithUkraine

Anthony J. Coyne
President, Mansour Gavin LPA