Fran is skilled in resolving complex business disputes involving public and private companies through litigation and negotiation, including securities, corporate governance, cybersecurity, consumer, and contract law matters. Her practice also includes counseling businesses on compliance and training for data privacy and cybersecurity, ethics, anti-bribery, and governance best practices. She regularly defends clients in SEC and other regulatory enforcement actions, and has conducted many internal corporate and special litigation investigations, as well as litigating numerous takeover and proxy contests involving public companies. Fran is an accomplished appellate lawyer, successfully arguing appeals on many groundbreaking issues. She also serves as an arbitrator on the American Arbitration Association Commercial and Consumer Panels, and has represented numerous clients in arbitration proceedings.
In independent surveys of in-house counsel and peer attorneys, Fran is ranked as one of Chambers USA’s “Leaders in Their Field” in Ohio for General Commercial Litigation, and a “State Litigation Star” in Ohio by Benchmark Litigation. She has appeared in Benchmark’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation” in the U.S. since 2014. Fran is nationally recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® in Corporate Compliance Law, Corporate Governance Law, Securities Litigation, and Banking & Finance Litigation, and was named Best Lawyers 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” for Corporate Compliance Law, in 2018 for Banking and Finance Law, and in 2017 for Securities Litigation.
Since 2019, Fran has served on the faculty of the Ohio Supreme Court Judicial College, instructing judges on topics including securities and shareholder litigation, “business divorce” actions for private companies, and fiduciary duties of managers, members, controlling shareholders, and partners in various types of business entities. She was tapped by the Department of Homeland Security to speak on “Cybersecurity in the C-Suite and Boardroom” in its C-Cubed webinar series.
Fran is active in the ABA, previously chairing the Business Law Section Director & Officer Liability Committee, and recently appointed to the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law Advisory Board. She is active in the community, including chairing the Art Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and serving as a director of Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, and as a member of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Sing Out! Chorale.
(B.Mus.)
Valedictorian
(M.Mus.)
Margaret Ireland Fellowship
(J.D.)
Order of the Coif; Society of Benchers Outstanding Student Award; Editor-in-Chief, Case Western Reserve University Law Review
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
FIRM INVOLVEMENT
HONORS