CINCINNATI— The Best Lawyers rank­ing of “Best Law Firms” has been released by U.S. News & World Report, and Faruki Ire­land & Cox P.L.L. (FI&C) (www.ficlaw.com) received first-tier rank­ings in four dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories:  Gen­eral Com­mer­cial Lit­i­ga­tion, Energy Law, Adver­tis­ing Law, and White Collar-Criminal Defense.  Visit http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com/ to view the full report.

The method­ol­ogy for the sur­vey included sur­vey­ing thou­sands of law firm clients, includ­ing every For­tune 100 Com­pany and over one-half of the For­tune 1,000 Com­pa­nies.  Char­lie Faruki has been listed in the Best Lawyers in Amer­ica ref­er­ence work since 1987.  Jeff Ire­land has also been listed for numer­ous years.

The rank­ings of Best Law Firms are rel­a­tively new; they were pub­lished in the Octo­ber 2010 edi­tion of the U.S. News & World Report mag­a­zine in a spe­cial stand-alone pub­li­ca­tion that went to 30,000 gen­eral coun­sels in the United States, and in a sec­tion on USNews.com.

To be eli­gi­ble for a national rank­ing, a firm must have an office in one of 40 met­ro­pol­i­tan areas, includ­ing Cincin­nati and Colum­bus, Ohio.  Clients voted on exper­tise, respon­sive­ness, under­stand­ing of a busi­ness and its needs, cost-effectiveness, and civil­ity.  Other fac­tors taken into con­sid­er­a­tion were pro bono com­mit­ment and diversity.

To learn more about Faruki Ire­land & Cox P.L.L., con­tact John Kendall at (937) 227‑3723, or visit www.ficlaw.com.

About Faruki Ire­land & Cox P.L.L.

Faruki Ire­land & Cox P.L.L. (www.ficlaw.com) is a national com­plex busi­ness lit­i­ga­tion trial prac­tice.  Since its for­ma­tion in 1989, FI&C’s prac­tice has focused on com­mer­cial dis­putes of all types, includ­ing antitrust, secu­ri­ties, intel­lec­tual prop­erty (patent, copy­right, trade­mark and trade secrets), class actions, e-business and tech­nol­ogy, competition-driven clashes (includ­ing false adver­tis­ing and covenants not to com­pete), First Amendment/free speech, injunc­tion cases, envi­ron­men­tal, con­tract and war­ranty dis­putes, employ­ment and dis­crim­i­na­tion cases, prod­ucts lia­bil­ity, admin­is­tra­tive, and zon­ing lit­i­ga­tion. FI&C is a 35-attorney firm with offices in Cincin­nati and Day­ton, and han­dles com­plex busi­ness dis­putes nationally.

CINCINNATI – Thanks to Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity (www.cincinnati-habitat.org), Ohio National Finan­cial Ser­vices, and the East­side Coali­tion of Churches, three area fam­i­lies will now have a much-needed home of their own, just in time for the hol­i­days. Ohio National Finan­cial Ser­vices spon­sored two Habi­tat homes at 3588 and 3592 Dick Street as part of their five year com­mit­ment to build 10 homes in the Cincin­nati com­mu­nity. The East­side Coali­tion of Churches spon­sored the third build at 3584 Dick Street. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built 11 homes in the three-block radius sur­round­ing Dick Street over the last four years.

The ded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mony will be at 11 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, Nov. 20 at 3588 Dick Street. Ohio National’s incom­ing CEO, Gary “Doc” Hoff­man, will speak. The com­mu­nity and mem­bers of the news media are wel­comed to attend.

The home at 3588 Dick Street will belong to Jane Huff. A sin­gle grand­mother rais­ing four grand­chil­dren, Huff has worked for the Uni­ver­sity of Cincin­nati for more than 20 years, and is very excited to be build­ing and buy­ing a home with Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity.  She says, “this is some­thing (my) grand­chil­dren deserve, a place they can always call home, even after (I have) gone. I have always dreamed of being able to pro­vide my grand­chil­dren a home of their own.”

Next door, at 3592 Dick Street, the home will belong to Stephona Bow­man. A sin­gle mother of two girls, Bow­man works for Fifth Third Bank, and grad­u­ated from Antonelli Col­lege this past June with her Busi­ness Degree in Tech­ni­cal and Net­work Sup­port. “I have spent a life­time of rent­ing and, at times, in less than desir­able hous­ing. This oppor­tu­nity to build and buy my own home pro­vides a long-term sense of secu­rity in hav­ing some­thing of our own,” said Bowman.

These will be the third and fourth homes spon­sored by Ohio National Finan­cial Ser­vices. To cel­e­brate 100 years as part of the Cincin­nati com­mu­nity, Ohio National Finan­cial Ser­vices announced its com­mit­ment to fund the con­struc­tion of 10 Habi­tat for Human­ity homes over the next five years – the largest ever one-time gift to Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity – in early 2009. Each Habi­tat for Human­ity home spon­sored by Ohio National sym­bol­izes a decade in its 100-year his­tory. The $780,000 gift will fund two homes each year for five years from 2009–2013.

The East­side Coali­tion home at 3584 Dick Street will belong to sin­gle mother, Chala Lewis and her three daugh­ters, Makayla, 14, Kaylen, 9, and Alana, 5.  “All of my life, I have wanted my own home.  I used to dream as a child to have the per­fect family—children, hus­band, cars and my very own home.  My life did not turn out to be the way I dreamt when I was a child.  But, I want to show my chil­dren that through hard work, ded­i­ca­tion, and the grace of God, all things are pos­si­ble. I want this home to give them a sense of own­er­ship and some­thing that they will appre­ci­ate and cher­ish,” said Lewis, who also often speaks to orga­ni­za­tions about her expe­ri­ence with Cincin­nati Habitat.

The third home at 3584 Dick Street was spon­sored by the East­side Coali­tion of Churches. The East­side Coali­tion has been work­ing in part­ner­ship with Cincin­nati Habi­tat since its found­ing in 1986, when they helped to build Cincin­nati Habitat’s first home, mak­ing them Cincin­nati Habitat’s old­est build­ing group. Over the years, they have helped build over 35 homes in Cincin­nati. Also, Alan Grif­fith, lead site coor­di­na­tor for the East­side Coali­tion, was named Habi­tat for Human­ity of Ohio Vol­un­teer of the Year for his out­stand­ing com­mit­ment and lead­er­ship. Eight new churches have recently been added to the East­side Coali­tion, so they will be able to build another house this year.

“These builds truly exem­plify what Habi­tat can do with the community’s sup­port. We are so thank­ful to Ohio National for their gen­er­ous dona­tion and to the East­side Coali­tion for their con­tin­ued involve­ment and sup­port over the years,” said Ed Lee, Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity Exec­u­tive Direc­tor. “These orga­ni­za­tions are help­ing Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity achieve an unprece­dented level of ser­vice. I can­not say enough about these orga­ni­za­tions and the fan­tas­tic vol­un­teers who made home own­er­ship a real­ity for these families.”

To qual­ify for their Habi­tat homes, the fam­i­lies had to meet a vari­ety of cri­te­ria and work beside vol­un­teers from Ohio National Finan­cial Ser­vices and the East­side Coali­tion, invest­ing 500 hours of sweat equity into the con­struc­tion of their homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat will sell the home to the fam­i­lies with a 0%, 20-year, interest-free mort­gage payable to Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity.

For more infor­ma­tion on Cincin­nati Habi­tat or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org, fol­low us on Twit­ter at http://twitter.com/CincyHabitat, or like us on Face­book at http://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiHabitat.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 210 homes in neigh­bor­hoods that include Avon­dale, Clifton, Colum­bia Tus­cu­lum, Evanston, Har­ri­son, Hyde Park, Lin­coln Heights, Lock­land, Madis­onville, Mill­creek Val­ley, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Wash­ing­ton, North Fair­mount, North­side, Oak­ley, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill, South Cum­minsville, South Fair­mount, Wal­nut Hills, West­wood and Win­ton Place, among oth­ers.  For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

CINCINNATI — Fis­cher Homes (www.fischerhomes.com) will cel­e­brate a rib­bon cut­ting for Parks of White­wa­ter in Crosby Town­ship on Novem­ber 17 at 10 a.m. The event, which is open to the pub­lic, will pro­vide an oppor­tu­nity to view the community’s new model home.

Crosby Town­ship City Coun­cil and mem­bers of the Cincin­nati Cham­ber of Com­merce will be tak­ing part in the rib­bon cut­ting event.

Parks of White­wa­ter fea­tures Fischer’s Maple Street and Designer Col­lec­tion of sin­gle fam­ily homes, and is located off of New Haven Road, on the west side of Cincin­nati, near Har­ri­son. Floor plans range from 1,800 to almost 4,000 square feet and are priced from the $180s. The com­mu­nity offers pic­turesque scenery with a pool, cabana, play­ground area, and open green space. Pre-construction spe­cial pric­ing and dis­counts are still avail­able for these homes.

“We are so excited to show­case Parks of White­wa­ter and begin con­struc­tion in this beau­ti­ful com­mu­nity,” said Fis­cher Sales Coun­selor, Tim Kel­ley. “Being located in the Excellent-rated South­west Local Schools is some­thing we are very proud of. Now is really the time to buy.”

For more infor­ma­tion about Parks of White­wa­ter, call Tim Kel­ley at (513) 617‑7734 or visit www.fischerhomes.com.

About Fis­cher Homes

Fis­cher Homes (www.fischerhomes.com), a mem­ber of The Fis­cher Group, has been build­ing homes through­out Ohio, North­ern Ken­tucky, and Indi­ana since 1980. The Fis­cher Group com­pa­nies main­tain cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion rat­ings of 98%, have more than 100 new home neigh­bor­hoods through­out Ohio, Ken­tucky, and Indi­ana, and offer home choices for peo­ple in all stages of life. Fis­cher Homes range in price from the $80s to the $700s.

CINCINNATI— Larry A. Sheak­ley, CEO of Sheak­ley, announced the acqui­si­tion of Jody For­man & Asso­ciates, Ohio work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion and unem­ploy­ment cost con­trol third party admin­is­tra­tor. Through the acqui­si­tion, Sheak­ley UniS­er­vice, a Sheak­ley affil­i­ate, added another 100 employ­ers to its client base. Sheak­ley is the fourth largest work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion third party admin­is­tra­tor in the state of Ohio, ser­vic­ing over 16,000 employers.

“Sheak­ley has proven itself to be an excel­lent busi­ness oper­a­tor of both work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion and unem­ploy­ment busi­nesses, and I am pleased to announce Sheak­ley as the cho­sen cus­to­dian of our Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion and Unem­ploy­ment Com­pen­sa­tion cus­tomers in the future,” said Jody For­man, for­mer Pres­i­dent, Jody For­man & Associates.

Through an agree­ment between Sheak­ley and Ms. For­man, she will remain engaged as a Sheak­ley employee to ensure a smooth tran­si­tion for the 100 clients involved/affected by the acquisition.

For­man will join Sheak­ley as a Con­sul­tant. She pre­vi­ously served as an Account Exec­u­tive at Sheak­ley from 1986 to 1990 before start­ing her own firm, Jody For­man & Asso­ciates, where she served as Pres­i­dent for 18 years.  As a Con­sul­tant, For­man will be respon­si­ble for mar­ket­ing Sheakley’s Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion & Unem­ploy­ment ser­vices in south­west Ohio.

“When I decided to sell, I think it was in the back of my mind that it would be some­thing to be acquired by Sheak­ley,” said For­man. “I am so glad we were able to come together. Sheak­ley was the fore­run­ner in group rat­ing. As a for­mer employee, I was very proud to see them grow. They are always on top of the lat­est changes in our busi­ness, and I knew that my clients would ben­e­fit from that knowl­edge. It’s a win-win for the clients I brought to the table. I am thrilled to be here and hope­fully can con­tribute to the ongo­ing growth at Sheakley.”

For­man attended The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity and Miami Uni­ver­sity. For­man is a mem­ber of the Fair­field Cham­ber of Com­merce and Kiwa­nis Club of Fair­field. She serves as a board mem­ber of Lifes­pan. For­man also estab­lished the Rob V. For­man Memo­r­ial Schol­ar­ship, in mem­ory of her son, Robert. The schol­ar­ship was awarded to a med­ical stu­dent study­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of Cincin­nati Med­ical School and will pro­vide $5,000 towards his tuition every year for four years.

A native of Mt. Ver­non, Ohio, For­man cur­rently resides in Lib­erty Town­ship with her hus­band, Jerry, and their dog and cat. She is a mem­ber of the Venice Pres­by­ter­ian Church, in Ross. In her spare time, she enjoys gar­den­ing, play­ing golf, and social­iz­ing with friends.

Sheakley-UniService, Inc., an affil­i­ate of Sheak­ley, sim­pli­fies work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion for over 16,000 clients, ensur­ing max­i­mum finan­cial return. As one of the four largest third-party admin­is­tra­tors in the state, Sheakley’s ser­vices include cus­tomized plans of action for effec­tive claims man­age­ment, safety pro­grams, self-insurance pro­grams, assis­tance with lump sum set­tle­ments, reim­burse­ment for pre-existing hand­i­cap con­di­tions and CPR/AED train­ing, among others.

About Sheak­ley

Sheak­ley spe­cial­izes in the fields of work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion, safety ser­vices, pay­roll, HR solu­tions, 401(k) ser­vices, flex­i­ble ben­e­fits plans, physi­cian billing, voca­tional rehab, unem­ploy­ment ser­vices, and mer­chan­dise for small to mid-size employ­ers. Rec­og­nized as a leader in its indus­try, Sheak­ley gets the job done for its clients by pro­vid­ing essen­tial busi­ness solu­tions that save cus­tomers time and money. Sheakley’s unique rela­tion­ship with its clients pro­vides per­son­al­ized cus­tomer ser­vice and focuses on results. View the Sheak­ley web­site at http://www.sheakley.com.