Denise M. Hasbrook

Denise has handled multiple trials to verdict in numerous Ohio trial courts and argued dozens of appeals in state, federal and the Ohio Supreme Court. She focuses her practice on commercial business disputes involving torts, unfair competition, real property disputes, contract cases, employment claims and shareholder disputes. She has substantial experience obtaining and defending claims for injunctive relief. For more than three decades, she has devoted a significant portion of her practice to issues facing the electric public utility industry. She also regularly counsels and defends national and small businesses in employment matters, contract disputes, and other issues facing their businesses.

Experience

• Lead trial counsel in dozens of jury and bench trials involving employment, business disputes and torts of all kinds
• Lead counsel in a case that established a bright line test for the age difference of a significantly younger employee in age discrimination; the decision was selected by Ohio Lawyers Weekly and Michigan Lawyers Weekly as one of the six most important judicial decisions in federal courts in Ohio and Michigan that year
• Argued over 40 cases in Ohio appellate district courts and at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Argued on three occasions at the Ohio Supreme Court including a case that resulted in an order vacating a permanent injunction against a public utility to permit proper maintenance of its transmission lines and successfully obtained reversal and remand of an adverse decision in which the appellate court improperly decided real property rights that had not yet been considered or resolved by the trial court
• Assisted on litigation team obtaining successful result for Northwest Ohio hospital system in Federal Court antitrust litigation
• Successfully defended a claim by a former employee of publicly traded company seeking millions of dollars for indemnification for legal fees to defend his own criminal charges
• Successful results obtained in numerous disputes involving fiduciary duties owed to minority shareholders
• Multiple favorable outcomes for businesses through settlement, motions for summary judgments, injunctive relief, trial and appeal
• Injunctive relief obtained in multiple cases for the nation’s fourth largest public utility seeking to site and maintain transmission lines   

Services

• Energy, Utilities, Oil & Gas
• Real Estate Litigation
• Liability Defense
• Complex Business & Commercial Litigation
• Appellate

Industries

• Energy, Utilities, Oil & Gas
• Manufacturing
• Real Estate Industry

1. The University of Toledo College of Law, J.D.
2. The University of Toledo, B.S.B.A.
   • magna cum laude

Bar Admissions

1. Ohio

Court Admissions

1. U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
2. U.S. Court of Claims, Washington, D.C.
3. U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana
4. U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
5. U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana
6. U.S. Supreme Court

Clerkships

1. Judicial Law Clerk, Lucas County Ohio Common Pleas Court

• Served as in-house counsel for 15 years for the nation's fourth largest public utility; supervising its legal team in NW Ohio
• AV^® Preeminent™ rating from Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory
• Named to The Best Lawyers in America® for Employment Law - Management (2012-2023)
• Named Toledo "Lawyer of the Year" by The Best Lawyers in America® for Employment Law - Management (2019, 2021)
• Selected as an "Ohio Super Lawyer" by Ohio Super Lawyers magazine (Most years since 2005)
• Toledo Women's Bar Association, Arabella Babb Mansfield Woman of the Year Award (1999)

Community Affiliations

• Member, Bon Secours Mercy Health, NW Ohio Region - Board of Trustees (Toledo, Ohio 2006–2018) employing over 7,000 and operating seven hospitals, including the largest Level I trauma hospital in NW Ohio  
• Chair, NW Ohio Region Board of Trustees (2015-2017)
• Member, Mercy Health – Toledo Foundation Board of Trustees, Corporate Board Liaison (2017 – 2019)
• Member, Bon Secours Mercy Health Audit & Corporate Responsibility Committee (2017–present). Bon Secours Mercy Health (Marriotsville, MD) operates 43 hospitals with over 57,000 employees across 7 states
• Member, Notre Dame Academy Board of Trustees (2011-2017)
• YWCA, Board Member (1995-2001), President (1997-1999)