Rate My Professor Michael Solimine

Michael E. Solimine is the Donald P. Klekamp Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, a position he has held since 1994. He teaches courses in Civil Procedure I and II, Federal Courts, Conflict of Laws, Complex Litigation, and Election Law. Prior to his endowed professorship, he advanced through the faculty ranks: Visiting Assistant Professor (1986-1987), Assistant Professor (1987-1989), Associate Professor (1989-1991), and Professor (1991-1994). Before entering academia, Solimine clerked for United States District Judge Walter H. Rice in the Southern District of Ohio from 1981 to 1984 and practiced as a civil litigator at the Dayton office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur from 1984 to 1986. He received his B.A. in Political Science summa cum laude as a University Honors Scholar from Wright State University in 1978 and his J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 1981, where he was Articles Editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

Professor Solimine is nationally and internationally recognized as one of the leading scholars in the American civil litigation system. His scholarship focuses on appellate litigation, empirical studies of civil litigation in federal and state courts, judicial federalism, and institutional aspects of judicial decision-making. He is the author of five books, including Voting Rights and Election Law (3rd ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2021, with Michael Dimino and Bradley Smith), Respecting State Courts: The Inevitability of Judicial Federalism (Greenwood Press, 1999, with James L. Walker), and Cases and Materials on Appellate Practice and Procedure (2nd ed., Thomson/West, 2005). He has published over seventy law review articles and book chapters, such as "Three-Judge District Courts, Direct Appeals, and Reforming the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket" (98 Indiana Law Journal Supplement 37, 2023) and "State Standing and National Injunctions" (94 Notre Dame Law Review 1955, 2019, with Brad Mank). His work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Courts of Ohio and Iowa, and extensively in scholarly books, casebooks, and law reviews. Solimine has earned major awards including the Mrs. A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching (2025), Faculty Excellence Awards (2019, 2023), University of Cincinnati Provost’s Faculty-to-Faculty Research Mentoring Award and Faculty Career Award (both 2017), and election to the American Law Institute (2021). He served as Reporter for the Civil Rules Subcommittee of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Rules Advisory Committee (1991-1997).