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Meet The Mahoning County Bar Association president-elect
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 25, 2018
Reminger Co. shareholder Kelly Johns said she believes every lawyer should take an active role in the local bar association.
“I think it’s important to have a community of lawyers who work toward common goals and give back to the area where they practice,” said Johns, who took the reins as president-elect of The Mahoning County Bar Association on June 25 during the annual election banquet at the Youngstown Country Club.
A member of The Mahoning County Bar Association (MCBA) since 2004, Johns is now working closely with MCBA President Gregg Rossi to increase membership by demonstrating the organization’s importance to the legal community and the benefits that members receive.
“Kelly has been a trustee for the last few years,” said Rossi, a partner at Rossi & Rossi Co. “She is very professional, carries herself well and is very interested in elevating the bar association.
“We have been working well together,” he said. “She is thoughtful, considerate and a deep thinker.”
“Kelly is a great attorney with a great reputation within the legal community,” said Tracie Schmidt, past president of The Mahoning County Bar Association. “I have served with her on The Mahoning County Bar Association Board of Trustees for a few years now and she is an asset to the board. She is active in the bar and is willing to assist wherever she is needed.
“I am excited to see what the MCBA can do in these next few years, with Gregg Rossi at the helm of the organization this year and Kelly serving as president-elect,” said Schmidt, a partner at Friedman & Rummell Co.
Born in Youngstown and raised in Austintown, Johns graduated from Ursuline High School.
When she started at Youngstown State University, Johns said she was planning to attend medical school, but switched to nursing instead.
After receiving her associate’s degree in nursing, she worked as a critical care nurse at St. Elizabeth Hospital for about eight years.
“While at the hospital, a friend of mine was involved in an adoption case and it got me thinking about switching to law,” she said. “I saw a position posted for a nurse paralegal.
“I decided to try working as a nurse paralegal to see if it was really something I wanted to do.”
Not long after starting at Jacobson, Maynard, Tuschman & Kalur, Johns said she discovered she wanted to go to law school.
She returned to Youngstown State University at night in 1995, graduating in May 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in applied science.
While still working as a paralegal during the day, she began attending night classes at The University of Akron School of Law.
Johns received her juris doctor in December 1999 and began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor in the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office. She left in 2004 to take a job as an associate at Reminger Co.
She’s been a shareholder since 2008 and focuses mainly on civil litigation.
“My practice consists primarily of workers’ compensation, employment law and general and professional negligence claims,” she said.
Johns served on The Mahoning County Bar Association’s grievance committee for many years. As president-elect, she is now the liaison to the committee.
She is also a former member of the inquiry committee and the board of trustees.
Johns lives in Canfield and has two adult children. Her daughter Ashley is a sole practitioner in Columbus and her son Daniel is an analytical chemist at Red Ball Oxygen in Houston.
“I would like to get more involved in community organizations, especially those that benefit autism, now that my children are grown up,” said Johns.