Michael E. Solimine

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Professor Michael Solimine is nationally and internationally recognized as one of the leading scholars in the American civil litigation system. His scholarship has focused on, among other things, appellate litigation, empirical studies of various aspects of civil litigation in federal and state courts, and the doctrinal implications of the similarities and differences between the institutional structures of federal and state courts, and the decision making of judges on those courts. 

Professor Solimine is the author of five books and over seventy law review articles, book chapters, or book reviews. His work has been cited and discussed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Courts of Ohio and Iowa, and other courts, and frequently by scholarly books, casebooks, and law review articles.

Named the Donald P. Klekamp Professor of Law in 1994, Professor Solimine teaches in the areas of civil procedure, federal courts, conflicts of laws, and complex litigation. Before joining the College of Law faculty in 1987, he practiced law as a civil litigator at the Dayton, Ohio office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur.

Professor Solimine is received his B.A. in Political Science from Wright State University, graduating summa cum laude as a University Honors Scholar. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was the articles editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. After graduating from law school, he clerked for United States District Court Judge Walter Rice, Southern District of Ohio.

BA, Wright State University
JD, Northwestern University

• Civil Procedure I
• Civil Procedure II
• Conflict of Laws
• Election Law
• Federal Courts

• Faculty Excellence Award, 2019
• Elected to Fellows of the University of Cincinnati Graduate School, 2018
• University of Cincinnati Provost’s Faculty-to-Faculty Research Mentoring Award, 2017
• University of Cincinnati Provost’s Faculty Career Award, 2017
• 2003 Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award
• Harold C. Schott Publication Prize, 2002, 2004, 2006
• Ohio State Bar Association Legal Education Committee Award, 2003
• 1991 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching

• Voting Rights and Election Law, (Carolina Academic Press (formerly LexisNexis), 2d edition 2015) (with Profs. Michael Dimino and Bradley Smith).
• Understanding Election Law (Carolina Academic Press (formerly LexisNexis), forthcoming 2016) (with Profs. Michael Dimino and Bradley Smith).
• Cases and Materials on Appellate Practice and Procedure (Thomson/West, 2d ed., 2005) (with Prof. Emeritus Robert J. Martineau, Prof. Kent Sinclair, and Delaware Supreme Court Justice Randy J. Holland).
• Respecting State Courts: The inevitability of Judicial Federalism (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999; Contributions in Legal Studies, Number 92) (with Prof. James L. Walker).
• Ohio Civil Rules Practice (Matthew Bender/LexisNexis, updated and published annually) (with Judge John W. McCormac).

• The Renaissance of Permissive Interlocutory Appeals and the Demise of the Collateral Order Doctrine, 53 Akron Law Review 607-38 (2019)(symposium).
• Are Interlocutory Qualified Immunity Appeals Lawful?, 94 Notre Dame Law Review Online 169-84 (2019).
• Institutional Effects on Reciprocal Legitimation in the Federal Courts, 70 Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc 105-118 (2017).
• Game Theory and Private International Law, in 1 Encyclopedia of Private International Law 830-35 (Edward Elgar Publishers, Jürgen Basedow, et al., eds., 2017).
• Retooling the Amicus Machine, 102 Virginia Law Review Online 151-67 (2016).
• Judicial Review and Direct Democracy: A Reappraisal, 104 Kentucky Law Journal 671-97 (2016)(symposium).
• The Fall and Rise of Specialized Federal Constitutional Courts, 17 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 115 (2014).
• Rethinking District of Columbia Venue in Voting Rights Preclearance Actions, 103 Georgetown Law Journal Online 29 (2014).
• The Solicitor General Unbound: Amicus Curiae Activism and Deference in the Supreme Court, 46 Arizona State Law Journal 1183 (2013).
• Congress, the Solicitor General, and the Path of Reapportionment Litigation, 62 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1109 (2012) (symposium).
• State Amici, Collective Action, and the Development of Federalism Doctrine, 46 Georgia Law Review 355 (2012).
• Interstate Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage, the Public Policy Exception, and Clear Statements of Extraterritorial Effect, 41 California Western International Law Journal 105 (2010) (symposium).
• Congress, Separation of Powers, and Standing, 59 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1023 (2009) (symposium).
• Ex parte Young: An Interbranch Perspective, 40 University of Toledo Law Review 999 (2009) (symposium).
• Congress, Ex parte Young, and the Fate of the Three-Judge District Court, 70 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 101 (2008).
• Institutional Process, Agenda Setting, and the Development of Election Law on the Supreme Court, 68 Ohio State Law Journal 767 (2007) (symposium).
• Due Process and En Banc Decisionmaking, 48 Arizona Law Review 325 (2006) (symposium).
• Status Seeking and the Allure and Limits of Law School Rankings, 81 Indiana Law journal 299 (2006) (symposium).
• Judicial Stratification and the Reputations of the United States Courts of Appeals, 32 Florida State University Law Review 1331 (2005) (symposium).
• The Future of Parity, 46 William & Mary Law Review 1457 (2005) (symposium).
• Recalibrating Justiciability in Ohio Courts, 51 Cleveland State Law Review 531 (2004) (symposium).
• Nepotism in the Federal Judiciary, 71 University of Cincinnati Law Review 563 (2002) (Faculty Scholarship symposium).
• Supreme Court Monitoring of State Courts in the 21st Century, 35 Indiana Law Review 335 (2002) (symposium).
• The False Promise of Judicial Elections in Ohio, 30 Capital University Law Review 559 (2002) (symposium).
• The Quiet Revolution in Personal Jurisdiction, 73 Tulane Law Review 1 (1998).
• Competitive Federalism and Interstate Recognition of Marriage, 32 Creighton Law Review 83 (1998) (symposium).
• The Three-Judge District Court in Voting Rights Litigation, 30 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 79 (1996).
• Forum Selection Clauses and the Privatization of Procedure, 25 Cornell International Law Journal 51 (1992).
• Rethinking Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction, 52 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 383 (1991).
• Revitalizing Interlocutory Appeals in the Federal Courts, 58 George Washington Law Review 1165 (1990).
• An Economic and Empirical Analysis of Choice of Law, 24 Georgia Law Review 49 (1989).
• Ideology and En Banc Review, 67 North Carolina Law Review 29 (1988).
• Enforcement and Interpretation of Settlements of Federal Civil Rights Actions, 19 Rutgers Law Journal 295 (1988).

• State Standing and National Injunctions, 94 Notre Dame Law Review 1955-83 (2019)(with Prof. Brad Mank)(symposium).
• Precedent, Three-Judge District Courts, and the Law of Democracy, 107 Georgetown Law Journal 413-55 (2019)(with Prof. Joshua A. Douglas).
• Federalism, Federal Courts, and Victims’ Rights, 64 Catholic University Law Review 909 (2015)(with Kathryn Elvey).
• The Supreme Court and the Sophisticated Use of DIGs, 18 Supreme Court Economic Review 155 (2010) (with Prof. Rafael Gely).
• Federal and State Judicial Selection in an Interest Group Perspective, 74 Missouri Law Review 531-54 (2009) (symposium)(with Prof. Rafael Gely).
• The Supreme Court and the DIG: An Empirical and Institutional Analysis, 2005 Wisconsin Law Review 1421 (with Prof. Rafael Gely).
• Supreme Court Monitoring of the United States Courts of Appeals En Banc, 9 Supreme Court Economic Review 17 (2001) (with Prof. Tracey George).
• Deciding to Decide: Class Action Certification and Interlocutory Review by the United States Courts of Appeal Under Rule 23(f), 41 William & Mary Law Review 1531 (2000) (with Christine Oliver Hines, Esq.).
• Judicial Reputation: A Citation Analysis of Federal Courts of Appeals Judges, 27 Journal of Legal Studies 271 (1998) (with Profs. William Landes and Lawrence Lessig).
• Diluting Justice on Appeal?: An Analysis of the Use of District Judges Sitting by Designation on the United States Courts of Appeal, 28 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 351 (1995) (with Professor Richard B. Saphire).
• Rethinking Feminist Judging, 70 Indiana Law Journal 891 (1995) (with Susan E. Wheatley, Esq.).
• Shoring Up Article III: Legislative Court Doctrine in the Post CFTC v. Schor Era, 68 Boston University Law Review 85 (1988) (with Prof. Richard B. Saphire).
• Constitutional Litigation in Federal and State Courts: An Empirical Analysis of Judicial Parity, 10 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 213 (1983) (with Prof. James L. Walker).

• Independence, Accountability, and the Case for State Judicial Elections, 9 Election Law Journal 215 (2010) (review of Chris W. Bonneau & Melina Gann Hall, In Defense of Judicial Elections (2009)).
• Formalism, Pragmatism, and the Conservative Critique of the Eleventh Amendment, 101 Michigan Law Review 1463 (2003) (essay review of John T. Noonan, Narrowing the Nation’s Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States(2002)).