On March 24, 2006, the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted a motion to compel arbitration that was filed in a construction case being handled by Jeff Ireland and Brad Anderson. The case involves a dispute about roofing contracts, and an action was filed in U.S. District Court by the surety, seeking expedited discovery and a preliminary injunction. Under the terms of the construction agreement, our client sought arbitration. The arbitration is expected to proceed, with the arbitrator first addressing dispositive issues and then deciding whether the merits of the arbitration will be heard.

In a case handled by FI&C associate Tim Pepper, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted summary judgment to FI&C client Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex, Inc. Plaintiffs alleged that a kitchen appliance was defectively designed and manufactured, thus causing an apartment building fire. After reviewing the testimony of the plaintiffs' two expert witnesses, the Court found insufficient evidence to support any of plaintiffs' claims.

FI&C associate Tim Pepper has been selected by the Dayton Business Journal as a "40 Under 40" Award winner for 2006. The "40 Under 40" Awards program recognizes the Miami Valley's emerging leaders in business, law, education, government, community and social services, and high technology. Tim concentrates his practice on commercial and employment litigation, and is active in professional and community affairs.

Charlie Faruki was selected for the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America. Nominations for membership in this list of the best and brightest of the trial bar, come from corporate counsel and from partners in law firms, and selection is based upon independent research and evaluations.

On March 13, 2006, Jeff Cox was a panelist for a public roundtable forum convened by the Dayton Daily News as part of their "2006 Sunshine Week" activities to discuss the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and its effect on public safety, health care, public information and privacy rights. The roundtable, held at Sinclair Community College, included medical and safety professionals, ethicists, journalists, privacy officers, compliance professionals and counsel to hospital systems and media interests; a complete transcript of the roundtable can be found at www.DaytonDailyNews.com. FI&C represents the Dayton Daily News and other Cox media interests in Ohio; the firm also represents Premier Health Partners, parent company to Miami Valley Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital and their various affiliates.

An article entitled, "From Civil to Criminal -- Overnight," written by Andrew J. Reitz, an associate at FI&C, was published in the March/April 2006 edition of the Ohio Lawyer. The article discussed the firm's externship program with the Montgomery County Public Defender's Office. As the article highlights, the goal of the program is to provide pro bono services while teaching young litigators how to try cases, manage clients, argue motions and develop general trial skills. The article also describes the trial experience that Andy gained while participating in the program. Link: http://www.ficlaw.com/publications/reitz/from_civil_to_criminal.pdf

FI&C associate John Fischer and FI&C Systems Manager Brenda Hinkle presented the firm's LexisNexis Total Search Case Study to attorneys and law firm information technology professionals from across the country at the LexisNexis Total Search Summit in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 2006. Sponsored by LexisNexis, participants of the Summit spent the day analyzing the decision to implement, the process to integrate, and the day-to-day use of LexisNexis Total Search, a recent addition to the LexisNexis product line that extends the LexisNexis search capabilities to a firm's internal document maintenance system. As one of the initial law firms to implement the Total Search solution, FI&C integrated Total Search into its systems and rolled out the product firm-wide earlier this year.

In her capacity as an officer of the Dayton Intellectual Property Law Association, Julie Zink gave the opening remarks at the Second Annual Spring Dinner of the University of Dayton School of Law Intellectual Property Law Society, which was held on March 10, 2006, and welcomed John Doll, the Commissioner for Patents, as keynote speaker.