Michael E. Smith, Partner in Frantz Ward’s Litigation Group, is named Board Chair for Community of Hope. He will serve in this position for a term of 18 months.
Community of Hope is a recently established nonprofit organization that is the home of the
Cleveland Open Table initiative, a movement that assembles groups of six or seven adult volunteers – or “tables” – who meet once a week for a year to help young people aging out of foster care navigate from poverty toward a prosperous future.
Mike has a broad-based general litigation practice involving both business litigation and personal injury litigation. His business litigation practice includes general contract and business torts, ERISA, insurance coverage litigation, professional malpractice, regulatory, consumer sales practices, and health care, including the defense of class action claims in several of those areas. Mike also represents a wide variety of companies in defending personal injury claims, including product liability, premise liability, and employer intentional tort cases. He also devotes significant time advising clients on how to avoid future litigation. Mike earned his J.D.,
summa cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University College of Law and his B.A.,
magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame.