Attorney

Patricia Ritzert has over 40 years of legal experience with an extensive background in Governmental Law, Public Finance, and Business Law. She is a member of the firm’s Corporate Business and Business Law group.

Having served as an assistant law director for the cities of Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, and a handful of Ohio port authorities, Ms. Ritzert’s experience includes local government issues comprised of employment, land use, taxation and finance, claims for and against townships and municipalities, and matters pertaining to non-profit organizations. Another area of concentration has been property rights and real estate development, which resulted in two cases litigated to the Ohio Supreme Court. On several occasions, she has served as independent outside counsel in the investigation or prosecution of alleged misconduct by municipal employees.

Ms. Ritzert is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the Ohio Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has carried business, financial, tax, property and employment issues through litigation in a wide variety of situations. She also practices before the Internal Revenue Service and the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals, the Ohio State Employment Relations Board, and other administrative agencies.

In addition to earning a Bachelor of Arts in economics, magna cum laude, and Juris Doctorate from the University of Akron, Ms. Ritzert has obtained two post-juris doctor degrees: a Master of Taxation from the University of Akron and an LL.M. in Taxation from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, magna cum laude. Ms. Ritzert has been a presenter at the Cleveland Tax Institute and for 17 years and was an adjunct professor of individual, corporate, and partnership taxation at Cleveland State University School of Law.

In 2023, she was named a “Woman of Distinction” by her Akron high school, Our Lady of the Elms, which honored graduates from the school’s 100-year history.

Pat is an avid reader, landscaper, hiker, and bicyclist. She and her husband Robert Bulford (U.S. Attorney’s Office, NDO, retired) and their five children are mainstays in the Akron Highland Square neighborhood. Since 2003 she has served, with 15 years as Chair, on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Review Board. Having played women’s community soccer and coached youth sports for 20 years, she maintains an interest in outdoor activities for children. Pat and her husband have nine grandchildren in Ohio, Maryland, and the Philippines.