JH
Chess Champion
As a National Chess Master, Jonathan Hilton brings this same energy and precision to the courtroom that he learned at the chessboard.
Jonathan Hilton’s knowledge of the law covers a wide array of areas, allowing him to help you make the best decisions for your clients, your family, or your business.
Jonathan Hilton: Experience
Jonathan Hilton became the youngest-ever Cincinnati Chess Champion at age 15, and he earned the National Master in chess title the following year. By the time he was in college, he was the #4 player in the State of Ohio.
He treated law school with the same intensity and focus that he brought to the chessboard, graduating first out of 97 law students. He also scored in the top 0.2% nationally on the Multistate Bar Examination, a six-hour, 200-question test covering seven diverse legal subjects.
At Hilton Parker LLC, Mr. Hilton now spends most of his time advising other attorneys on their most difficult cases. As a consultant and brief writer, he designs novel legal theories in courts across the country.
Locally, Mr. Hilton’s typical clients include small businesses (often with yearly revenues between $1 million and $10 million) such as trucking companies, construction subcontractors, restaurant owners, real estate investors, and tech start-ups. He provides full service from LLC formation and operating agreements to litigation in both state and federal court.
Mr. Hilton also provides wills and trusts, powers of attorney, and other estate planning documents to clients in the Columbus metropolitan area. He has litigated family law cases through trial, and he has successfully represented mothers, fathers, children, and seniors.
Built for Complex Litigation
While in law school, Mr. Hilton was a legal researcher and brief writer for the boutique securities and class action law firm Markovits, Stock & DeMarco, LLC, where he contributed substantially to several successful legal arguments in multimillion-dollar federal trial and appellate court cases. Mr. Hilton’s precise writing and in-depth legal researched helped the firm uphold an $11.4 million verdict against Toyota on appeal; obtain an $80 million class action settlement with Duke Energy; and reinstate a lawsuit by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System to continue its securities fraud lawsuit against Freddie Mac.
Mr. Hilton also externed for two different justices—the Honorable Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger of the Ohio Supreme Court and the Honorable Justice David John Newman of the High Court of Botswana. In Botswana, Mr. Hilton worked on important issues in criminal justice, such as the role of flogging as a role of punishment.
Mr. Hilton was awarded the Stanley M. Chesley and Hon. Susan J. Dlott Award in Litigation; the Graydon, Head & Ritchey Advocacy Prize; the Thompson, Hine Advocacy Prize; and the Ernest Karam Outstanding Excellence Award for his skill in litigation.
After law school, Mr. Hilton joined Jones Day, one of the most prestigious practices in the United States and a “Fearsome Four” litigation firm. At that firm, Mr. Hilton had the privilege of working closely with former law clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also gained valuable trial experience, seeing one of his intellectual property cases go to trial during his first year on the job—a rare occurrence for a young associate.
Establishing Hilton Parker LLC as an Award-Winning Firm
In 2017, Mr. Hilton started his own practice in Reynoldsburg, Ohio and quickly gained a reputation as a litigator who takes on challenging cases. Mr. Hilton has represented clients in over two hundred federal cases, resulting in him being named by SuperLawyer® as a Top Rated Business Litigation Attorney in Reynoldsburg and Pickerington. He was selected for the 2020 issue of The Top 100 Attorneys Magazine, and he was also named to the 2021 and 2022 “Rising Stars.” Now, the Hilton Parker LLC brand is recognized for its high-quality work in state and federal courts.
Taking Brief Writing, legal Research, and Oral Argument to the Next Level
By mid-2022, Hilton Parker LLC’s reputation for its written briefs in court had attracted a new clientele: other attorneys. Personal injury and mass tort firms began hiring Mr. Hilton as a contract attorney, a consulting expert, or co-counsel on their toughest cases.
The firm adapted to this new role as a “lawyers’ lawyer,” spending thousands of dollars developing the tools it now uses to produce elegant, high-quality legal briefs at a fraction of what big defense firms charge.
Hilton Parker LLC even hired consultants for oral argument, including law professors; a Toastmasters champion; and an opera singer. Every aspect of Mr. Hilton’s arguments is tested with focus groups before he gets to the podium, from the number of words spoken per minute to the tone and pitch used in Court.
Within a year, the firm had helped its clients to:
Convince a state court to adopt a novel common law theory of products liability in a pharmaceutical case;
Secure the right to aggregate claims around the country before a single federal judge based on a nationwide service of process statute;
Defeat a major online platform’s motion to dismiss negligence claims;
Survive a pharmaceutical distributor’s motion for summary judgment;
Obtain a favorable ruling on qualified immunity in a police misconduct case;
Exclude portions of a manufacturer’s expert witness opinion;
Persuade a state court to find personal jurisdiction over a foreign machine parts manufacturer;
Uphold on appeal a judgment against a major bank;
Analyze and brief complex issues involving choice of law, third-party practice, appellate standing, contribution, and indemnity
Disclaimer: As you know, past success does not predict future outcomes.
Now, the firm’s practice consists primarily of working as consultants, brief writers, and litigators to help plaintiffs’ attorneys navigate their most challenging cases and change the law.
