Barrister of the Month
Peter F. vonMeister Esq.
LL
awyers are, by their very nature, advisors. Of the multitude of responsibilities assumed by lawyers on any given day, perhaps that which emerges most prominently is the responsibility to give advice. Peter von Meister, a seasoned lawyer and shareholder with Green & Green, Lawyers, has remarkably demonstrated what it means to follow one’s own advice. “It’s easy to be a lawyer,” he said definitively. “To be a lawyer, you only need two things: ability and integrity.” Peter’s maxim of ability and integrity, while undoubtedly the cornerstone of his practice, is thematically woven throughout his career. “It’s really that simple,” he reiterated, “and this is what I tell young lawyers I mentor: you may not be the most capable lawyer, but if you ever skimp on integrity, you invite disaster.” Peter, a New Jersey native, was born in a German-speaking family. His father immigrated to the United States from Germany, and his mother, from Austria. Peter’s father was a successful industrialist and the role model that sparked Peter’s pursuit of the practice of law. (Peter was also frequently told as a child he was good at arguing and should be a lawyer.) Peter attended secondary school at a Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island, where he not only received a superior education, but also developed a fondness for the Midwest which led him to attend Knox College (Class of 1969) and thereafter the University of Cincinnati College of Law (Class of 1972). For Peter, going to law school was merely one possible post-graduate route. Given his
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Dayton Bar Briefs February 2019
strong familial ties to the business world, he naturally gravitated toward business and law schools. He applied to, and was accepted into, both. In 1966, he enlisted in the Army Reserve ROTC program earning a commission in 1969 as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. Peter made a calculated business decision: the Army offered him an active duty deferment for graduate school: three years to complete a J.D., or two years to get an M.B.A. Facing probable deployment to Viet Nam, he opted to attend the University of Cincinnati College of Law and forego the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he had also been accepted. While at UC Law, Peter fell in love with Southwest Ohio; the Bengals were new, the Reds were hot, the Royals were cool, and becoming a litigator was the way to go. “My plan was to attend law school for three years, put in two years in the infantry, and go to business school,” he said. “But deep down inside, I knew I wanted to try cases—in Cincinnati.” After taking the bar exam, Peter went to Fort Benning, Georgia to complete his active duty commitment with the Army. In November 1972, while he was still on active duty, he flew himself to Columbus to be sworn in as a new attorney, then flew back to Fort Benning that evening. By then the Army had offered to reduce his two year commitment to “time served” if Peter would agree to an additional two years in the Reserves. That was an easy decision, and the week before Christmas, he flew
himself back to Cincinnati. On Monday, February 5, 1973, Peter started his first day as a practicing attorney with the Cincinnati litigation firm McIntosh, McIntosh & Knabe. Three weeks later, he tried his first case—and won. It was very early in his career that the principles of ability and integrity emerged as Peter’s foundational requirements for the practice of law. “I vividly remember and will be eternally grateful to the judges and seasoned lawyers who helped me grow up.” Peter stayed with the McIntosh firm until February 1977, when he moved to Virginia to become licensed there and in the District of Columbia. He quickly became involved with several telecommunications venture capital projects developed by his older brother. After five years in Virginia, Peter decided to return to Ohio to accept an offer from NCR Corporation for a Senior Commercial and Litigation attorney position. Not long after, one of the early projects (Control Video Corporation) was sold off and put under the capable management of a former employee by the name of Steve Case. It’s now known as AOL. “I didn’t want to remain practicing in D.C. and Virginia. I missed Southwest Ohio,” he said. NCR gave Peter the opportunity to litigate and arbitrate cases all over the country, but the most satisfying projects were developing and writing NCR’s data processing sales, service, and software support contracts for some of the country’s best known brands including Walmart, FedEx, continued on page 7
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