Matthew John Markling is a director with the law firm of McGown & Markling Co., L.P.A.

Mr. Markling is among the less than one percent of Ohio attorneys who have earned the prestigious distinction of being renowned as an Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Labor and Employment Law.

While Mr. Markling serves as the Coordinating Director of both the Firm’s Labor and Employment and Litigation practices, Mr. Markling also serves school boards in a wide-array of school law areas ranging from construction, property valuation, special education, pupil services, grievance arbitration, discrimination charges, policy revision, and general consultation.

Mr. Markling is also General Counsel for the Ohio Educational Service Center Association, as well as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board of Education's designee for suspension and expulsion appeal hearings.

As General Counsel for the Ohio Educational Service Center Association, Mr. Markling provides school law consultation to a wide array of educational service centers and school districts through the School Law Hotline^SM and other legal services.

Mr. Markling was recently awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award by the Ohio Educational Service Center Association in recognition of his legal leadership to Ohio Educational Service Centers and their school districts.

Mr. Markling served as President of the Lakewood City School District Board of Education and remains an active member of the Ohio School Boards Association. Mr. Markling was also been elected by his board member colleagues on the Northeast Region Ohio School Boards Association to serve on the Northeast Region Executive Committee. Of more than 3,400 school board members, Mr. Markling is one of 93 school board members to receive the 2010 Ohio School Boards Association Award of Achievement, one of only 81 board members to receive the 2011 Ohio School Boards Association Award of Achievement, one of only three school board members from the Northeast Region Ohio School Boards Association to receive the 2011 Ohio School Board Association Outstanding Board Member Award, and a nominee by the Northeast Region Ohio School Board Association for the 2011 All-Ohio School Board Award.

In 2011, Mr. Markling was one of four board members bestowed the lifetime distinction of Master Board Member Award by the Ohio School Boards Association.

Throughout his legal career, Mr. Markling has served as an assistant professor for the Bowling Green State University College of Education and Human Development, Division of Educational Administration & Leadership Studies; an adjunct faculty member for Ashland University; and an adjunct faculty member and senior lecturer with the University of Akron School of Law and College of Education.

Mr. Markling holds a Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating™ for ethical standards and legal ability.

Mr. Markling has also been selected by his legal peers as one of The Best Lawyers in America® in the specialty of Education Law. For over a quarter of a century, Best Lawyers® has been regarded – by both the profession and the public – as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. Selection to Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey comprising more than 2.8 million confidential evaluations by the top attorneys in the country. Because no fee or purchase is required, being listed in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

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