2013 Alumni Award Recipients

  • Five Capital University Law School alumni and a program critical to Capital’s bar passage success will be honored at the Law Alumni Association’s Eighth Annual Alumni Recognition Luncheon.

    The event will be at noon Friday, April 12, 2013 at the Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square, 75 E. State St. Tickets are $45 per person or $450 for a table of 10. More than 300 alumni and friends of the Law School are expected to attend. For early registration contact the Office of Alumni Relations.

    This year’s award recipients are:
     


  • Jim HavensJames R. Havens, a 1981 Capital University Law School graduate and 1978 Capital University alumnus, will receive the Josiah H. Blackmore II Dean’s Award, which recognizes outstanding service to the Law School and the Dean’s Office. 

    Havens, a member of the Capital University Board of Trustees, founded Havens Limited in 1981. He represents and litigates for title companies, developers, management companies, construction firms, sellers, buyers and lenders involved in real estate. In 1984 he founded Cardinal Title Insurance Agency and remains the company’s president and owner. Havens is a managing general partner of various real estate development, construction and management entities, which own and operate numerous Central Ohio commercial real estate investments.

    His contributions to Capital University Law School are extensive. He and his wife created and funded the James R. & Maureen K. Havens Professor of Law Fund in support of the Sullivan Professorship. He is a former member of the Law School’s Board of Counselors; has been a proponent of a recently approved course at Capital in shale, oil and gas law; and has been an active supporter of initiatives in the organization.

    Havens began lecturing on real estate at Capital University Law School early in his career. Since then, he also has lectured at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University and at many of Central Ohio’s commercial real estate and insurance organizations. He has served as Education Chair of the Central Ohio NAIOP Chapter. During his three-year tenure, he worked with Tony Sanders, the Galbreath chair of the OSU Fisher College of Business MBA program, and selected a line-up of prominent real estate experts who served as course instructors.
    Havens served as an elected Granville Township Trustee for three terms (1996-2008), including 11 years as group chair. He also was a member of the Granville Township Board of Zoning Appeals and Commission from 1991-95. He helped form and implemented Ohio’s first open space acquisition program, which collected approximately $5 million in tax and unrestricted proceeds used to acquire 18 properties, involving 753 acres, in Granville Township.
    He is the past president of the Central Ohio Land Title Association; was named to Business First’s “Who’s Who in The Law, Real Estate” in January 1995; and was a member of the 161 Corridor Accord. He has served on the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission Steering Committee and is a former member of the Newark-Granville New Community Authority.

    Havens’ support of the Law School extends to his family and business associates. His sister, Joan, is a Capital graduate, as is his son, Matt, who works for Havens Limited after graduating from the Law School in 2011. His firm also employs 2010 CapLaw graduate Wesley Gilliland, while his office manager and paralegal, Jennifer Alvarez, is a current student in the evening division.
     
  • Scott MoteScott R. Mote, a 1976 Law School graduate, will receive the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award. The award recognizes alumni for their significant achievements in the legal field and notable contributions to the profession, community and Capital University Law School.

    Mote is executive director of the Ohio Lawyers’ Assistance Program, a non-profit organization that educates members of the legal profession about substance abuse, chemical dependency and mental illness. OLAP also provides advice about treatment alternatives, performs interventions, provides support and monitors recovery.

    Mote, who struggled with alcoholism earlier in his career, began volunteering with the Ohio State Bar Association’s Lawyer’s Assistance Committee in 1985. OLAP evolved from that committee. Mote became OLAP’s first associate director in 1995. He became executive director in 1999, after the death of the group’s first executive director.

    Today, OLAP personnel give nearly 100 CLE presentations annually, reaching a live audience of nearly 10,000 attorneys. They also speak at Ohio’s nine law schools.

    Mote has made more than 400 presentations, including the annual conventions of the OSBA, Ohio Judicial Conference, Ohio Ethics Commission, American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (ABA CoLAP), and the National Organization of Bar Counsel. He is an ABA CoLAP commissioner.

    In 2006, Mote received OSBA’s highest award to the legal profession, the Ohio Bar Medal. In 2010, OSBA presented him with the Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism. He received the Columbus Bar Association’s Award of Merit in 2005.

    Before making OLAP his full-time work, Mote was a general practice lawyer and civil litigator for more than 25 years, including 18 years as founding partner at Harris, McClellan, Binau & Cox PLL.

    Mote received his master’s degree from the University of Dayton in 1973 and his undergraduate degree cum laude from Wright University in 1972. He was admitted to practice in Ohio in 1977; the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, in 1977; Florida in 1978; U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio in 1978; and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. He is a member of the ABA (Health Law Section and Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar Section); the OSBA (Council of Delegates, District 7; Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Section); the CBA (Admissions Chair from 1994-96 and Probate Committees); the Florida Bar (Out-of-state Practitioners Division); Ohio State Bar Foundation; Columbus Bar Foundation; Central Ohio Association for Justice; the Central Ohio Association for Criminal Defense; and the Federalist Society.
     
  • Anne TaylorThe Hon. Anne Taylor, a 1979 Capital University Law School graduate, will receive the Alumni Outstanding Service Award. The award is presented to a graduate who has performed significant voluntary service, beyond the call of business or professional duty, to the community and/or Capital University Law School.

    Taylor is a board member of the Capital University Law School Alumni Association and is the longest-serving judge on the Franklin County Municipal Court, where she was elected in 1991, 1997, 2003 and 2009. She is chair of the Court Appointed Counsel Committee.

    Before her election, she was owner of a general law practice with a strong emphasis on criminal defense, civil rights and domestic relations litigation. After graduating from Capital University Law School, she started her career as a staff attorney with the Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship through the Ohio State Legal Services Association.

    She has served as a member of the Civil Law and Procedure Committee for the Ohio Judicial Conference; the Columbus Bar Association Professional Ethics and Grievance Committee; the Columbus Zoo Board; Friends of the Homeless; and Special Ties. She was president of the Franklin Inns of Court from 1995-97, was included in “Who’s Who of American Women 1997-98” and was one of the Columbus Jaycees’ Ten Outstanding Young Citizens in 1992.

    She received her bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University.
     


  • Sandra McIntoshSandra R. McIntosh    , a 2004 Capital University Law School graduate cum laude and member of the Capital University Law School Alumni Board since 2006, will receive The Young Alumnus of the Year Award. The award recognizes a CapLaw graduate born after July 1, 1972, who has made significant achievements in his or her legal occupation and has made notable contributions to the legal profession and community.

    McIntosh has been with the firm of Freund, Freeze & Arnold, LPA, since graduating from Capital in 2004. She was promoted to shareholder in 2009. McIntosh focuses on school law, business and commercial litigation, and the defense of employment, medical malpractice and personal injury claims. Prior to joining Freund, Freeze & Arnold, she was a law clerk in the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, a law clerk at Bricker & Eckler LLP, and a judicial extern for the Hon. James L. Graham, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio.

    She has been active with the Columbus Bar Association, serving on the Board of Governors (2010-present), a pro bono task force (2012-13), and the Judiciary Committee (2012-present). She was a presenter for the Barrister Leader Program regarding Bar Leadership (2012), appointed to the Judicial Task Force and its student membership committee (2011), and is a member of the Common Pleas Court Committee. She was a member of the Economic Summit Planning Committee (2008-09), Nominating Committee (2009), and New Lawyers Committee (chair, 2007-09.) She completed the Barrister Leader Program (2005-06).

    McIntosh has served as a member of the Columbus Bar Services Board (2009-12) and the Ohio State Bar Association Jury Instructions Committee (2012-present.) She is part of the Ohio State Bar Foundation Fellow Class (2011.) She has held numerous positions with the Women Lawyers of Franklin County, including serving as president (2009-10). She has served on the Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys since 2008 and has authored numerous professional articles.

    She received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1999, graduating with a double major in human resource management and organizational behavior.
     


  • Lindsay EllisLindsay Ford Ellis    , a 2007 Capital University Law School graduate, will receive the Graduate of the Last Decade Award. The award is presented to CapLaw alumni who have made significant achievements in their occupation and have made notable contributions to the legal profession and/or the Law School.

    Ellis is a judicial attorney to Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and currently serves as President of the Capital University Law School African American Law Alumni Association, where she actively mentors current students. She also is membership chair of the John Mercer Langston Bar Association’s Board of Directors and a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and Columbus Bar Association.

    Before her current position, Ellis was an associate attorney at Crabbe, Brown & James LLP, focusing on civil litigation, insurance defense and contracts. She is authorized to practice in all courts in the state, including the Ohio Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

    Ellis also is active in the community, serving on the Eldon and Elsie Ward YMCA Advisory Board, on the CATCO board, and as an African American Leadership Academy Fellow, Cycle 6.

    She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 2003.
     
  • Yvonne TwissCapital University Law School Advanced Bar Studies will receive the second annual Impact Award. The award will be accepted by the program’s creator, Professor Yvonne Twiss, ABS Director. The Impact Award is given annually to the Capital University Law School program or person that contributed most to the legal development and career of the person making the nomination.

    This program provides students with dedicated faculty to support the process of applying to the Ohio Bar. A main feature of the program is the Advanced Bar Studies course, an extensive and substantive review of selected legal material routinely tested on the bar exam. The course uses problems and exercises in a bar exam format to familiarize students with techniques for answering the kinds of materials on the bar, including multiple choice questions and analyzing, organizing and writing essay and multistate performance questions.

    The ABS program is generally viewed as playing an integral role in Capital University Law School’s successful bar performance in recent years. The Law School typically ranks near the top of the list of Ohio’s nine law schools for the percentage of its graduates who pass the Ohio Bar on their first attempt. During the past five years, 90 percent of Capital’s students have passed on their first attempt.

    The program’s design has been so effective that it has served as a model for similar programs at other law schools across the country.