What's new

Subscribe By RSS RSS Link

Swearingen-Hilker honored by Ohio State Bar Foundation for community service

Columbus, OH (Mar. 19, 2012)— Nicole A. Swearingen-Hilker will receive the Ohio State Bar Foundation’s Community Service Award for Attorneys 40 & Under at the Ohio State Bar Association’s District 11 Annual Meeting at the John S. Knight Center on Tuesday, March 27 in Akron.

Swearingen-Hilker, an associate in the Akron office of Brouse McDowell, has excelled both professionally and in her service to the community. In addition to her law practice, she works with Northeast Ohio Guatemalan Adoptive Families, an organization of more than 50 families that addresses the needs of adoptive parents and their children. What started out as a lunch group has become a stateside support group that works with fair-trade co-ops in Guatemala. Swearingen-Hilker also works as a court-appointed special advocate for children who have been taken out of their homes.

“Meeting people, getting to know their individual needs, and not imposing a one-size-fits-all solution is the balancing act of problem-solving and ‘hands-on therapy’ that fulfills my dreams as a lawyer,” says Swearingen-Hilker. In addition to working with Guatemalan families, Swearingen-Hilker serves as a board member of the Humane Society of Greater Akron and the University of Akron Honors College.

Swearingen-Hilker serves the Akron legal community by chairing the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Akron Bar Association’s Women in Law Section. She also serves on the Association’s Scholarship Committee, and is a former chair of its Probate Law Section and New Lawyer Committee. She is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and a Fellow of both the Ohio State Bar Foundation and Akron Bar Foundation.

Swearingen-Hilker received both her B.A. and law degree from the University of Akron.

About the Award

The Community Service Award for Attorneys 40 and Under is presented to attorneys, 40 years of age or younger, who contribute substantial time and effort in service to a local social service or to a local civic, artistic or cultural organization. The service must be outside the recipients’ practice of law and given without compensation. Emphasis is placed on current service. Recipients represent the ideals of the legal profession and, by example, are a credit to the profession. NOTE: The Community Service Award is presented to attorneys in each of the Ohio State Bar Association’s 18 districts, and the statewide award recipient is chosen from these district honorees.

About the Ohio State Bar Foundation

The Ohio State Bar Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works to advance the law and build a better justice system. Through our grants and programs, we educate and perform outreach to the public to make the law fair for all Ohioans. For more information about the Ohio State Bar Foundation, please visit www.osbf.net.

Return to the list of press releases