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The Creative Debater
Geoffrey Parker: Experience
Mr. Parker graduated cum laude from Cornell Law School, where he won the Frederic H. Weisberg Prize in Constitutional Law, topped the curve in Federal Courts, and served for the final two years as research assistant to nationally renowned constitutional scholar Professor Michael Dorf. While in law school, Mr. Parker also served as an extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, where he was selected to participate in moots with, and serve as personal research assistant to, U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach in his preparations for a major oral argument.
Before joining Hilton Parker LLC, Mr. Parker worked at Jones Day’s Columbus office. He represented several Fortune 500 companies, but he is proudest of a key appellate win in a pro bono case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Representing a hardworking father of three U.S. citizens, Mr. Parker’s briefing convinced the panel—led by famed jurist Judge Richard Posner—to temporarily halt his client’s deportation. In light of Judge Posner’s opinion, the immigration court granted Mr. Parker’s client a new cancellation of deportation trial.
Today, Mr. Parker can often be found pacing, marker in hand, in front of the whiteboards that cover the walls of his office. He extensively diagrams his cases, considering every possible line of attack and marshalling the supporting arguments and evidence. His clients love him for his eagerness to break down legal concepts into understandable pieces, his habit of involving them in major strategic decisions, and his honest-to-a-fault communications style. In fairness, they occasionally find him annoying for precisely the same reasons, but Mr. Parker finds that most clients would rather he err on the side of too much client involvement than too little.
The "Creative Debater"
Long before law school, Mr. Parker was a master of debate. Propelled by his love of competition and his penchant for coming up with surprising, but “technically correct” arguments, Mr. Parker qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association’s celebrated national tournament by his sophomore year of high school. And although he chose to spend his college years preparing to be a research scientist, he could never bring himself to give up his favored pastime of competing in debate tournaments.
After graduating from college, Mr. Parker worked as an industry chemist for just long enough to realize that he liked the idea of scientific research more than the day-to-day reality. Deciding he could do more good for the world in a profession that channeled his true passion, Mr. Parker pivoted to a career in the law, where his years of debating both sides of any topic have paid off handsomely. His ability to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each argument placed him near the top of his class at Cornell Law School, and after graduating cum laude, he scored in the top 2% of Ohio bar exam takers on the Multistate Bar Examination.
At Hilton Parker LLC, Mr. Parker brings deep, precise analysis to the legal questions involved in briefing major motions and appeals, and in pleading unusual or novel theories of liability. Thanks to his ability to anticipate and preempt the other side’s best arguments, along with his extensive public speaking experience, the firm’s clients have enjoyed a remarkable degree of success in appeals.
In the federal appeals courts, where the average civil appellant has just a 14% chance of obtaining any kind of reversal, Mr. Parker’s clients in 2021 achieved three reversals in three attempts, including two victories and a split decision allowing the client to take a second bite at the apple. While this streak finally ended with a loss at the Sixth Circuit in 2023, the firm is proud of Mr. Parker’s results.
