Michele L. Young - Cincinnati, OH

Michele Young is a 2024 USA Today Ohio Woman of the Year and a 2020 Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year. She is also the 2020 Cincinnati Bar Association Julia A. Stauberg Honoree “in Recognition of an Outstanding Female Counselor for her Exemplary Service and Accomplishments.”

A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, a former adjunct law professor in two law schools, a law clerk to three federal judges, including the Hon. George Edwards, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit, and an author of articles and co-author of a law book for the American Bar Association. Ms. Young considers it an honor and pleasure to redress each and every injustice and to serve the legal needs of each individual in need of help. Her lawyering is distinguished by an emphasis on innovativeness, integrity, non-stop hard work, and heart. She takes great pride in solving what appears to be, at first blush, an unsolvable legal problem. She has spearheaded successful political, public interest, civic, and media campaigns, serving as an advocate in whatever capacity is needed.

Michele Young worked with an all-star team of legislators and scientists so every Ohio woman now has a chance for early screening of breast cancer through the passage of HB 357. She is part of a team updating the law now to make it even better.

She is the lawyer who speaks for those who do not have a voice, who have been bullied, forgotten, left behind, or counted out. Her efforts have borne fruit in terms of giving rise to new leaders and giving a voice to those who previously did not have a voice.

“I tend to look at the person and say, ‘What if it was me?’ And then I say, ‘What will it take to break down the walls so they can get where they want to go?'” Michele said.

Ms. Young represented the father and is part of the civil team that brought justice to the family of Gabriel Taye, the 8-year old who committed suicide after being brutally bullied. The case settled for 3 million dollars, requires changes in the way bullying is handled throughout the Cincinnati Public School system and will protect many children’s lives.

Michele was part of the pro-bono effort to free the Tyra Patterson on Christmas Day 2018 for a crime she did not commit after 23 years in prison.

Noted for reaching across political, faith, and demographic lines, Michele has developed bi-partisan support of public-safety initiatives. This includes bringing together students and young graduates to robustly support the Interfaith Workers Center’s successful effort to bring healthy food to Cincinnati Public Schools through the adoption of the Good Food Purchasing Program, and bringing together civic and law enforcement leaders to support the Hamilton County Coroner’s effort to build the first crime lab in 50 years.

Michele Young’s “Don’t Text and Drive” campaign for Gregory S. Young Co. LPA, reached hundreds of thousands of homes weekly through television, in partnership with CBS Local 12, CW, and Star 64, for years. Leaders across the community came forward to say, “I just don’t do it.”

Michele, Patti Collins and the Bootsy Collins Foundation are working together to transform the lives of children in the spirit of their heroes from their childhood, “The Land of Superheroes.” Michele is hard at work at the Pink Eraser Project to be a catalyst to end the treatment of breast cancer as we know it.

Michele is not one to just pursue lofty goals. She pulls her sleeves up and gets to work where it is needed: whether it is arranging for a single mother to have a new heater in her home or bringing holiday presents to an underprivileged child, she does what she can. She joins the Armed Forces Tickets Association, give out tickets to arts and sports to our veterans, and has planned city-wide events to support Asian American Inclusion.

Ms. Young received the Outstanding Achievement Award by Cincinnati Women’s Political Caucus for her pioneering work bringing minority women into the political realm, including recruiting and running for free the campaign for the first Asian American woman to be elected countywide and co-chairing the campaign of the first African American judge to be elected countywide.

Michele is of counsel to Gregory S. Young Co., LPA, a law firm entering its sixtieth year, specializing in personal injury law. She has her own law firm focused on social justice and advocacy, Michele Young, Co., LPA.