Special to The Truth
The 2023 Access to Justice Awards Dinner was held on May 25 at The Pinnacle in Maumee. The annual event is led by the northwest Ohio legal community with the proceeds used to support the legal services provided by the Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Legal Aid of Western Ohio and the Toledo Bar Association’s Pro Bono Legal Services Program.
ABLE, LAWO and the Toledo Bar Association recognized three members of the community for supporting equal access to justice: Public Interest Law Award to Eugenio Mollo, Jr; Community Advocacy Award to Ramon Perez; Distinguished Service Award to Judge Myron C. Duhart.
Judge Duhart was recognized for his “consistent support of the firms’ events and fundraising campaigns, his service on the Awards Selection Committee for the Access to Justice Awards Dinner and his longstanding, often quiet, encouragement and support of the fight for equal justice.”
Duhart earned a B.A. from Wright State University and a law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law. He also earned an L.L.M. in judicial studies from Duke University School of Law.
Duhart began his law career as a clerk for Judge Robert W. Penn and as public defender in Lucas and Wood counties. He practiced law for 15 years specializing in personal injury and criminal defense cases as one of the few attorneys certified to litigate death penalty cases in Ohio.
In 2011, he became a trial judge in the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas and in 2020 was elected to the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals. Judge Duhart serves as an adjunct professor at the UToledo College of Law. He’s a member of the Toledo Bar Association, The Lucas County Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association and the National Bar Association. He is a past president of the Toledo Bar Association, the Thurgood Marshall Law Association, the University of Toledo College of Law Alumni Board of Governors.
Judge Duhart also had a career in the Army serving as a first lieutenant in the JAG Corps and as a second lieutenant with Army Transportation.
He has served with numerous community associations and been honored on anumber of occasions including the 20 Under 40 Leadership Award, the NAACP Community Service Legal Award, the Frederick Douglass Alumni Hall of Fame Award, the UAW Civil and Human Rights Award.
On September 10, 2022, Boss Park, on the corner of Hawley and Avondale, was renamed the “Honorable Judge Myron Duhart Park.”