Lawrence A. Sutter III was a talented, astute and uniquely gifted trial lawyer. He was also a coach, teacher, and mentor to countless trial lawyers. Larry passed away in 2017 after a 22–month battle with cancer. He was 53. His legacy is essential to who we are today.
Larry began his legal career in with a large Cleveland firm, where he focused on products liability defense and catastrophic accident cases. He was elected as a partner before he reached the age of 30. Throughout his career, Larry was known as a hard–charging trial lawyer.
The industry recognized this. Larry was a “Super Lawyer” for over 10 years and was featured as “Best Defense” in 2008. The National Law Journal recognized him many times, including him among their “Ten Best Defense Lawyers” in 2002. In 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court named Larry to the Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline. He received the inaugural Cornerstone Award by Stetson University College of Law for his exceptional proficiency in advocacy teaching. In 2017, he was posthumously awarded the Excellence in Advocacy award from the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys.
Larry had a career-long passion and commitment to train new generations of trial lawyers. As the director of the competitive trial team program at the University of Akron School of Law for 27 years, he guided Akron to four national championships and eighteen regional titles. A courtroom at Akron Law is named in Larry’s honor.
As our firm’s co-founder and leader for 15 years, Larry challenged us to be the best we could be. We will continue to be guided by his example of leadership in the years to come. The Sutter name will live on as we defend our clients in the only way Larry knew – fearlessly, anywhere, anytime.