Eric J. Wittenberg

Eric J. Wittenberg is a graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and also of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He was admitted to practice before the Ohio bar in 1987, as well as the United States District Courts for the Northern (1989) and Southern (1987) Districts of Ohio and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1990). He is a member of the Ohio State, Columbus Bar Associations.

Sometimes parties are unable to resolve their disputes without recourse to the courts. Mr. Wittenberg has extensive trial experience, and has tried cases before many courts in the State of Ohio. He has also argued a number of cases before the Tenth District Court of Appeals, and has practiced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. He has extensive experience with the enforcement of covenants not to compete, and with the protection of trade secrets and trademark and copyright rights. He has also represented a number of construction contractors in both court-based litigation and in arbitration proceedings. Mr. Wittenberg has been involved in numerous disputes among shareholders of closely-held shareholders. He has done commercial collections for a variety of clients, and heads the law firm’s litigation practice, where he supervises all litigation matters. Litigation matters include:

• Corporate litigation, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty and disputes among shareholders or closely-held companies;
• Business collections and other breach of contract matters;
• Construction claims and construction-related collections matters;
• Covenant not to compete and trade secret litigation;
• Real estate litigation, including title defects and landlord-tenant matters;
• Agricultural litigation matters, including field tile and drainage matters; and
• Employment litigation.

In addition, Mr. Wittenberg is experienced with handling business and real estate transactional matters. For eight years, he served as general counsel to a busy title agency, and has handled hundreds of real estate conveyances. He is comfortable with commercial and residential leasing matters, title matters, and other related real estate transactions. That includes drafting and negotiating contracts, preparing and prosecuting mechanic’s liens, and other advising both owners and contractors. Although avoidance of litigation is always preferable, sometimes it cannot be avoided. When it is inevitable, experience counts. Mr. Wittenberg has extensive experience in handling real estate and construction disputes. On the business side, Mr. Wittenberg has served as counsel to dozens of small businesses, including, but not limited to, assisting in entity selection, entity formation, drafting all appropriate corporate documents, negotiating and drafting contracts, negotiating and drafting documents related to the purchase and sale of businesses, drafting employee handbooks and helping to establish corporate policy and procedure, and protecting trademarks and copyrights. 

Professional photographers have their own unique business and intellectual property issues to tackle. There are many issues that arise, including questions about the ownership of copyright, contractual issues, and other sticky areas. Mr. Wittenberg has worked with a number of professional photographers over the years, and is familiar with the unique issues faced by professional photographers. He can help photographers with developing good, enforceable contracts, help them to understand the sticky copyright issues that they face, and can assist with making your photography business successful.

Mr. Wittenberg is also an award-winning Civil War historian. He is the author of twenty-one published books, and more than three dozen articles that have appeared in national magazines on the Civil War.