Rhonda Baker Debevec joined the firm in 1997 and was named as a partner in 2007. In her years with the firm, Rhonda has gained extensive experience in a variety of different types of litigation involving negligent medical care, personal injury, wrongful termination from employment, defective machinery, and workplace injury. Career highlights include obtaining a verdict with partner Dennis Lansdowne in excess of one-half million dollars for a young woman who had been sexually harassed by her employer, a substantial verdict for a patient who suffered complications from a retained surgical sponge, and a settlement in excess of one million dollars against a gas station for its illegal sale of beer to an under-aged customer. The customer was later responsible for a drunk-driving accident that killed two teenagers.
In addition to vigorously representing her clients, Rhonda is also active in several legal organizations including the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys and the Ohio Association for Justice. Rhonda helped to organize the Cleveland legal community’s first Volunteer Day and tutored Cleveland high school students weekly.
Native to the Greater Cleveland area, Rhonda has also been active with her alma mater serving a term as the President of Kenyon College’s Regional Association in 2000. Rhonda graduated with honors from Berea High School in 1989 and Kenyon College in 1993. At Case Western Reserve School of Law, she was one of ten recipients of a full-tuition academic scholarship and graduated magna cum laude. The publishers of Law & Politics magazine named Rhonda a “Rising Star” in 2006 and 2007.