Stratton Appointed as Honorary Co-Chair of the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations

Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, of counsel in the Vorys Columbus office who prior to joining Vorys served as justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio for 16 years, was appointed by Ohio Governor John Kasich as an honorary co-chair of the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations.   Former U.S. Senator and Ohio Governor George Voinovich, and former U.S. Representative. Louis Stokes will serve with Stratton as honorary task force co-chairs.

The task force, which was created by Governor Kasich in December 2014, will explore the cause of fractured relationships between communities and law enforcement, examine strategies to strengthen trust between them in order to resolve the underlying causes of friction, and provide a report to the governor with recommendations about best practices available to Ohio communities.  It will accomplish this through a series of public forums and through research conducted by task force members.

Stratton counsels clients on variety of practice areas, including appellate issues, litigation and health care.   She spent the first nine years of her legal career as a central Ohio trial lawyer. In 1988, she became the first woman elected judge of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Stratton was appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court by Governor George Voinovich in 1996 and was elected by Ohio voters to three six-year terms. While serving on the Ohio Supreme Court, she formed and chaired the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on Mental Illness & the Courts, which since its formation in 2001 has helped establish 38 mental health courts, recommended changes to Medicaid and advocated for a new Juvenile Competency Statute. Currently, she serves with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine as co-chair of the Attorney General's Task Force on Criminal Justice and Mental Illness.

To read the governor’s executive order that formed the task force, click here.