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Robin E. Harvey

Robin Harvey is a partner and the Litigation Coordinator of Baker Hostetler’s Cincinnati office. She handles business litigation, including regulatory challenges, securities, corporate and contract cases, as well as the defense of employment cases and mass product liability actions.

In that connection, she has served and currently serves on the national trial teams of several manufacturing clients. She represents the steel and auto industries in commercial, product safety and product liability litigation. Ms. Harvey has appeared before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of clients in cases involving the application of accounting standards, products liability and bankruptcy.

Ms. Harvey has extensive experience in consumer product regulation and regularly represents manufacturing clients and trade associations before both state and federal agencies responsible for product safety including the CPSC, NHTSA, DOE and several EPA Offices responsible for automotive compliance and the appliance ENERGY STAR program. She frequently defends clients in matters involving alleged regulatory violations brought by various states’ attorneys general.

Ms. Harvey’s consumer products practice focuses heavily on manufacturers ranging from children’s products and home appliances to electric cars. She counsels clients on the design of warnings and product literature, as well as worldwide market access regulations for products and restricted materials. Ms. Harvey helps clients prepare responses to investigations by state, regional and federal agencies. In addition, she works with clients to conduct internal audits and risk assessments related to restricted chemicals, product compliance and legislative and regulatory developments. Ms. Harvey has keen insight into the differing rules for various categories of products under The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). She actively monitors the CPSIA legislation and regularly authors commentary relating to merging trends and enforcement actions.

Prior to joining Baker Hostetler, Ms. Harvey was a partner and a member of the Firmwide Executive Committee of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan and Aronoff. She was resident in Cincinnati, where she served as Vice Chair of that firm’s Labor and Employment Law Department. She also practiced in litigation, labor relations and employment law at Paxton & Seasongood, a Cincinnati law firm, now Thompson Hine, from 1982 to 1988. Prior to this, Ms. Harvey served as resident counsel for the Hopi Indian Tribe in Oraibi, Arizona, and as a trial lawyer with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Harvey is active in local, civic and charitable organizations. She is the former chair of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati Board of Overseers and serves on the College’s Board of Governors. She is a member of the United Way de Tocqueville Society Women’s Leadership Initiative Steering Committee. In addition, Ms. Harvey is the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees of Cedar Village and is a member of the Cincinnatus Association.

Ms. Harvey is a Fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation Class of 2004, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and participates as a Master of the Bench in the Potter Stewart Inn of Court in Cincinnati. She is a member of Leadership Cincinnati, Class XXVII, and serves on the Leadership Cincinnati Steering Committee. Ms. Harvey has been named an Ohio Super Lawyer since 2004 and has been ranked to be among the top 5 percent of Ohio Lawyers and among the top 50 female lawyers in the State of Ohio by Law & Politics. She was selected as one of Cincinnati’s Top Ten Women lawyers by Women’s Business Cincinnati. In 2010, Ms. Harvey was named a finalist for the Greater Cincinnati ATHENA Awards, which honor outstanding women who have achieved professional excellence, given back to their communities and created leadership opportunities for other women in the Cincinnati region. She also was awarded the National Diversity Council’s 2011 Ohio Glass Ceiling Award, which recognizes the leadership excellence of women who have not only achieved personal success but have made it possible for others to more easily follow in their footsteps.

She is a Past-President of The Wellness Community Board of Trustees of Greater Cincinnati, as well as an Emeritus Board Member, former President of the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and served as Chair of the Cincinnati Citizens Cable Communications Board.