Cincinnati Law Alumni Awards 2021

Nate Lampley '88
Managing Partner, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP

Nate Lampley is a graduate of Hamilton High School, the University of Dayton, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he received the American Jurisprudence Award.

Today, Lampley serves as the managing partner at the Cincinnati office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, where he made history as the first African American to lead a major Cincinnati firm. He is a member of the firm’s litigation group where he has handled complex business and commercial matters in both state and federal court. These cases included class actions and significant business disputes regarding labor and employment issues, as well as commercial arbitrations before the American Arbitration Association. Lampley is also a featured speaker at seminars for the American Corporate Counsel Association and a lecturer on trial advocacy skills for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He has been repeatedly recognized for his excellence in business law, receiving the honors of Ohio Super Lawyer, Best Lawyers in America, and Ohio Lending Lawyer. Nate was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Lampley has served as a member on the University of Cincinnati College of Law Board of Visitors since 2005 and joined the nominating committee in 2007. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor, and with his wife, Paula, he has established the Nathaniel Lampley, Jr. Scholarship Fund for students graduating from Hamilton City Schools.

Karen Litkovitz '84
Magistrate Judge, Southern District of Ohio

Magistrate Judge Karen Litkovitz graduated cum laude from Bowling Green State University in 1981 and from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1984.

Judge Litkovitz brings decades of experience in public service and community action to the bench. From 1984 to 1986, she worked as a law clerk to U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Steinberg before transitioning to the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, where she served as a senior attorney, primarily focusing her practice on Social Security disability, public assistance, domestic relations, and housing law. Judge Litkovitz returned to the United States District Court in Cincinnati in 1994 where she clerked for Judge Steinberg and Judge Timothy Hogan, as well as a pro se law clerk for prisoner civil rights and habeas corpus cases. Since 2010, she has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Ohio and in 2018 was reappointed to a second eight-year term.

Beyond the courtroom, Judge Litkovitz is a Fellow of the Cincinnati Academy for Leadership of Lawyers as well as a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Board of Trustees. She is the chair of the Cincinnati District Court Criminal Justice Act Committee and co-chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s Lawyer to Lawyer program. She is also a member of the Potter Stewart American Inn of Court and the Federal Magistrate Judges Association. Judge Litkovitz has served as an advisory board member for Bethany House Services and Mercy Professional Services, a tutor for elementary school children, and a volunteer for Tender Mercies.  She is an avid supporter of young lawyers, mentoring students through the Federal Bar Association and Ohio Women’s Bar Association, and she is a frequent guest speaker in UC College of Law classrooms.

Steve Wolnitzek '74
Partner/Owner, Wolnitzek & Rowekamp Attorneys at Law

Stephen Wolnitzek graduated from the University of Notre Dame cum laude in 1970 and the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1974.

Wolnitzek began his legal career serving as a Kenton County Deputy Sheriff for several years while still in law school. Wolnitzek has spent the entirety of his career with the Covington-based firm of Wolnitzek and Rowekamp (formerly Taliaferro, Smith and Brown), where he practices personal injury, family, product liability, and school law. He was Special Counsel to the first two Chief State School Officers following the Education Reform Act of 1988. In that role he worked to remove from office local superintendents and elected school board members who violated the law.

He also has extensive experience working as a mediator for clients of various backgrounds. In 1984, Wolnitzek was elected to the Ft. Wright City Council and went on to serve on the city’s Board of Adjustments for over a decade. Additionally, Wolnitzek served as the Director of the Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company of Kentucky from 1988 to 2012.

Wolnitzek is Past President of the Kentucky Bar Association and the University of Cincinnati College of Law Alumni Association. He is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. He served over 24 years on the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission, stepping down as chair in January 2020, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association. Wolnitzek is an active member of the Defense Research Institute and the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys.