Case Title: In re Application of Reynolds

Citation: 2010-Ohio-5947

Docket Number: 20101358

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2010-12-09T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Cite as In re Application of Reynolds, 127 Ohio St.3d 331, 2010-Ohio-5947.] 
 
 
IN RE APPLICATION OF REYNOLDS. 
[Cite as In re Application of Reynolds, 127 Ohio St.3d 331, 2010-Ohio-5947.] 
Attorneys — Character and fitness — Application to register as a candidate for 
admission to the bar — Application disapproved, with permission to 
reapply. 
(No. 2010-1358 — Submitted September 28, 2010 — Decided  
December 9, 2010.) 
ON REPORT by the Board of Commissioners on Character and 
Fitness of the Supreme Court, No. 431. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} In 2008, Steven Todd Reynolds of Lebanon, Ohio, applied for 
permission to register as a candidate for admission to the practice of law in Ohio 
and to take the bar examination.  The Admissions Committee of the Warren 
County Bar Association conducted an investigation of his character and fitness.  
The committee made an unfavorable recommendation, and Reynolds appealed.  
See Gov.Bar R. I(12). 
{¶ 2} A formal hearing on the matter was scheduled for February 12, 
2010, before a three-member panel of the Board of Commissioners on Character 
and Fitness, but it was canceled at the request of the applicant.  The matter was 
later rescheduled for June 11, 2010, but the applicant failed to appear at the 
hearing. 
{¶ 3} Based upon the applicant’s failure to attend the hearing, the panel 
unanimously found that the applicant had failed to cooperate in the character and 
fitness process and had failed to meet his burden of proving that he has the 
requisite character and fitness to be permitted to sit for the Ohio bar exam.  The 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
panel, therefore, recommended that his application be denied until he has 
cooperated with the board and a full hearing regarding his character and fitness 
has been conducted. 
{¶ 4} The board concurred in the panel’s recommendation that the 
applicant be disapproved.  The board also recommended that the applicant be 
permitted to reapply for admission to the practice of law in Ohio by filing a new 
application to register as a candidate for admission to the practice of law and an 
application to take the bar examination. 
{¶ 5} Based upon the foregoing, we accept the board’s recommendation 
to disapprove the applicant’s pending application.  The applicant may apply to 
take a future bar exam, provided that he submits a new application to register as a 
candidate for admission to the practice of law and an application to take the bar 
examination and cooperates with a complete character and fitness investigation, 
including an investigation and report by the National Conference of Bar 
Examiners, so that we may determine whether he possesses the requisite 
character, fitness, and moral qualifications for admission to the practice of law in 
Ohio. 
Judgment accordingly. 
 
BROWN, 
C.J., 
and 
PFEIFER, 
LUNDBERG 
STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR, 
O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
David E. Ernst, for the Warren County Bar Association. 
______________________