College of Law

Professor Solimine is received his B.A. in Political Science from Wright State University, graduating summa cum laude as a University Honors Scholar. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was the articles editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. He then clerked for U.S. District Judge Walter Rice (S.D. Ohio), and practiced law as a civil litigator at the Dayton, Ohio office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, before joining the College of Law as a visiting assistant professor. He joined the tenure track faculty in 1987, and was named the Donald P. Klekamp Professor of Law in 1994. He teaches and writes in Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Conflicts of Laws, and Complex Litigation. His scholarship has focused on, among other things, appellate litigation, empirical studies of various aspects of civil litigation in federal and state courts, and the doctrinal implications of the similarities and differences between the institutional structures of federal and state courts, and the decision making of judges on those courts. His recent publications have appeared in the Arizona Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, Supreme Court Economic Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, and the Wisconsin Law Review. He is also the co-author of Respecting State Courts: the Inevitability of Judicial Federalism (Greenwood Press 1999)(with James L. Walker), Cases and Materials on Appellate Practice and Procedure (Thomson/West 2d ed. 2005)(with Robert J. Martineau, Kent Sinclair, and Randy J. Holland), Anderson’s Ohio Civil Rules Practice with Forms (LexisNexis, annually updated)(with John W. McCormac), and Voting Rights and Election Law (LexisNexis 2010)(with Michael Dimino and Bradley Smith).    

Professor Solimine won the Goldman Prize for Teaching Excellence in 1991, was the recipient of the Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award (in 2003), the Harold C. Schott Publication Prize (in 2002, 2004, and 2006), and the Legal Education Committee Award of the Ohio State Bar Association (in 2003). He served as counselor (reporter) to the Civil Rules Subcommittee of the Rules Advisory Committee to the Ohio Supreme Court (1991-97), as an academic advisor to the Access & Quality task Force of the Ohio Courts Futures Commission (1997-99), and as a Master of the Bench to the Potter Stewart Chapter of the American Inns of Court (1987-2007).