Wilkins, Bonnie L.

Dick Whitney is a trial lawyer with considerable experience as lead counsel in substantial litigation matters throughout the United States. He has spent his entire career with Jones Day.

A focus of his practice has been actions against former executives and auditors in significant business failures. In a case arising out of the insolvency and subsequent liquidation of Ambassador Insurance Company of Vermont, he led a trial team on behalf of Vermont's Insurance Commissioner to a $120 million jury verdict and eventual $205 million judgment in a New Jersey federal court against one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, a result reported by The Wall Street Journal as one of the largest jury verdicts ever awarded against a national accounting firm for auditing malpractice. He currently heads a similar case in federal court in Pittsburgh, seeking more than $500 million from the auditor of Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, arising out of the largest nonprofit bankruptcy in history. He has through such cases acquired significant and recognized experience in insurance and corporate insolvency litigation, as well as financial, accounting, and auditing liability.

Dick is admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and to the state bars of Ohio and New York. He has appeared on behalf of corporate and government clients in state and federal trial courts in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Texas, California, Vermont, Washington State, Georgia, and the District of Columbia. He has argued before federal courts of appeals in the Second, Third, and Sixth Circuits; various state courts of appeals; and the Supreme Courts of Ohio, Texas, and Vermont.

Dick has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (Bet-the-Company Litigation; Commercial Litigation) and in Cincinnati Magazine's Ohio Super Lawyers (Business Litigation). He is a member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and the John M. Manos Inn of Courts in Cleveland. He serves as an instructor in trial advocacy and frequently lectures on trial preparation and tactics, trial skills, and the use of technology in trial presentation. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Hospice of the Western Reserve, one of the nation's largest private hospice organizations.