Appellate Practice

Koehler Fitzgerald is regularly engaged to assume the prosecution or defense of appeals following a final order in federal and state trial courts. Timothy J. Fitzgerald was one of the first attorneys in Ohio to be certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as an Appellate Law Specialist and was appointed in 2010 to serve as one of the twelve members on the OSBA's Appellate Law Specialty Board, which oversees the testing and certification of attorneys in Ohio as appellate specialists.

James F. Koehler, Tim Fitzgerald and Christine M. Cooper have handled more than 200 appeals in state courts and in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 3rd Circuit, 5th Circuit, 6th Circuit, 7th Circuit and 10th Circuit. The subject matters of these appeals have ranged from arbitrability of claims, banking fraud, civil RICO, federal and state securities laws, insurance coverage and bad faith, partnership law, real estate and many other subject matters.

Tim Fitzgerald is frequently engaged by large insurers to represent their interests in coverage cases before the Ohio Supreme Court, either directly, or to present the carrier’s interests via an amicus brief. He is also frequently engaged to review a trial record to provide a fresh perspective, to identify potential challenges to a successful judgment, or to identify error to support a reversal.

Recognizing that an appeal is not a second trial, the firm’s appellate lawyers utilize their expertise and experience to identify procedural and substantive issues and fashion the specific arguments most likely to be successful on appeal and achieve our clients’ objectives.