Milligan Pusateri Co., LPA

01/12/2026

Milligan Pusateri is pleased to announce that Stephan Babik has joined the firm as a partner!

Steve brings with him a breadth of experience. In addition to maintaining a private practice over the years, Attorney Babik has served as a Magistrate in Stark County Common Pleas Court, where he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio to the Advisory Committee on Case Management; Chief Policy Advisor and Legal Counsel to the Stark County Sheriff, where he was named an Honorary Deputy Sheriff; Chief of the Civil Division for the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office; and counsel for several local villages and municipalities.

Steve is also active in local and state organizations advancing the legal profession. He served as president of the Stark County Bar Association and is a graduate of the 37th Signature Class of Leadership Stark County.

Please join us in welcoming Steve to MP!

11/19/2025

Congrats Tony Brown!

𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗔 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘀! OACTA is thrilled to introduce and congratulate our 2026 Officers whose dedicated leadership brings experience, vision, and a strong commitment to advancing the mission of OACTA and supporting Ohio’s civil defense community. We’re excited for the year ahead and look forward to their guidance and leadership in 2026!

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗔 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘀:

President
Daniel A. Richards, Weston Hurd LLP

Vice President
Michael M. Neltner, Cincinnati Insurance Company

Treasurer
Nicole A. Mitchell, Garvey Shearer Nordstrom, PSC

Secretary
Anthony E. Brown, Milligan Pusateri Co., LPA

Immediate Past President
Elizabeth T. Smith, Board of Professional Conduct, Ohio Supreme Court

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05/05/2025

We are pleased to announce that Derek Firth has passed the Ohio Bar Exam and will be joining Milligan Pusateri as an associate attorney after he is sworn in as an attorney on May 12th!

Derek is a life-long resident of Stark County. A graduate of Central Catholic High School, he went on to attend Kent State University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating magna cm laude.

Derek joined MP last summer as a law clerk and continued working part-time during the remainder of his 3rd year of law school. Derek graduated from University of Akron School of Law at the end of December 2024 and sat for the Ohio Bar Exam in February 2025.

A total of 345 aspiring attorneys took the exam, and 147 (43%) passed. There was a total of 122 first-time examinees who took the exam, and 79 examinees (65%) received a passing score. The successful examinees represent 35 Ohio counties and 10 states.

Those who meet all requirements will be sworn in as attorneys during a special session of the Supreme Court at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 12 at the Palace Theatre in Columbus. The Bar Admissions ceremony will be live streamed on the Supreme Court website: https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/

Please join us in celebrating Derek's success! He is a very hard worker and eager to start his career at MP!

12/28/2024

Dan Eisenbrei, Partner at Milligan Pusateri, secures reversal of murder conviction, clearing path for new trial.

On December 26, 2024, Ohio’s Ninth District Court Appeals reversed the criminal convictions of Sydney Powell, a young Akron woman and former University of

11/22/2024

Milligan Pusateri continues to be recognized by U.S. News Best Lawyers® as a Tier 1 Law Firm in the Akron region in the areas of insurance law and litigation, labor and employment litigation, medical and medical malpractice law representing defendants. The firm is also recognized by Best Lawyers® for its work in appellate practice, commercial litigation, health care law, municipal law and litigation and defendant personal injury litigation.

This recognition is the work of the outstanding lawyers in the firm, many of whom have been recognized for years as Best Lawyers®: Paul Pusateri (since 2007), Merle (Trace) Evans (since 2008), Richard Milligan (since 2010), Thomas Himmelspach (since 2011) and Kimberly Wyss (since 2015).

Learn more about the firm, its lawyers and practice areas at www.milliganpusateri.com.

09/06/2024

Milligan Pusateri Launches Mediation Service

Milligan Pusateri is excited to now offer the mediation services of Attorney Tony Brown.

Tony has more than 25 years of civil litigation and trial experience. He has tried over 40 jury trials to verdict and has handled dozens of multi-million-dollar cases.

Since he joined Milligan Pusateri in 2018, Tony has focused his efforts on medical malpractice litigation. This, combined with decades of handling personal injury, business, employment, civil rights, insurance, real estate, and probate litigation in both state and federal courts, gives Tony the unique ability to evaluate civil cases of virtually every kind.

Tony is honored to offer his background and experience in the realm of mediation. He has mediated hundreds of civil cases as an advocate for his own clients and his experience will be effective to help other parties resolve their disputes.

If you have a case you believe will benefit from private mediation, please contact Tony to discuss: https://milliganpusateri.com/staff/tbrown/

08/20/2024

Congratulations to MP Attorneys Merle “Trace” Evans and Richard Milligan!

Both of these accomplished attorneys have been named 2025 “Lawyers of the Year” by U.S. News Best Lawyers®

Merle “Trace” Evans has been recognized as Akron “Lawyer of the Year” for insurance litigation.

Richard S. Milligan has been recognized as Akron “Lawyer of the Year” for health care law.

Best Lawyers highlights one individual in a particular practice area and location as the “Lawyer of the Year” for recognition. These awards are based on who received the highest votes from their peers in a given year.

08/15/2024

Lawyers for Milligan Pusateri continue to be recognized by U.S. News Best Lawyers®.

Recognized in the 2025 Best Lawyers in America are:

- Merle D. Evans (since 2008) – for insurance law and litigation.

- Thomas R. Himmelspach (since 2011) – for appellate practice.

- Richard S. Milligan (since 2010) – for health care law and medical malpractice law – defendants.

- Paul J. Pusateri (since 2007) – for commercial litigation, insurance law, municipal law and labor and employment and municipal litigation.

- Kimberly K. Wyss (since 2015) – for insurance law, insurance litigation and defendants’ personal injury litigation.

Recognized in the 2025 Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch is:

- Jenna M. McKean (since 2021) – for health care law, medical malpractice law – defense and personal injury litigation – defense.

For more information about our firm and lawyers, please visit our website: milliganpusateri.com

07/31/2024

In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio found that a school board must conduct three observations of the teacher being engaged in teaching before deciding not to renew a limited teaching contract.

Milligan Pusateri appellate lawyers Dan Eisenbrei and Haley Walker were honored to represent the teacher in the Supreme Court.

To read more about the case: https://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2024/SCO/0731/230376.asp

To watch the oral argument by Attorney Eisenbrei: https://ohiochannel.org/video/supreme-court-of-ohio-case-no-2023-0376-jones-v-kent-city-school-dist-bd-of-edn

06/07/2024

Congratulations to all of the graduating students this year!

We also want to congratulate the graduates in our MP family:

Attorney Tony Brown’s son, Colin, graduated from The Ohio State University with a BS in Business Administration and majored in Finance through OSU’s program through the Max M. Fisher College of Business. He currently lives and plans to stay in Columbus. He is interviewing at a number of companies and hopes to make his job decision in the next few months. He is looking forward to a career in corporate finance.

Attorney Jack Cooper’s daughter, Allison, graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in psychology. She plans to take a year off school before beginning graduate school.

Attorney Jenna Purdum McKean’s son, Jack, graduated from Pre-K and is excited to begin Kindergarten in the fall at Greenwood Early Learning Center.

We are so proud of our graduates! Congratulations to the class of 2024!

05/29/2024

Congratulations to Rob Mullen on this well-deserved promotion 🎉

05/20/2024

Please join us in welcoming our new law clerks, Derek Firth and Brock Jones.

https://milliganpusateri.com/news/