William G. Batchelder

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William G. Batchelder, III (b. Medina, July 30, 1943) is is an American politician of the Republican party. He is a former judge in the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth Appellate District, and currently serves as the representative from the 69th District to the Ohio House. He is the husband of Judge Alice Batchelder, currently a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Batchelder was born and raised in Medina, Ohio, where he graduated from Medina High School. He earned his undergraduate degree in history at Ohio Wesleyan University and his juris doctor degree at The Ohio State University, where he was a member of the National Moot Court Competition team. He was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives while on active duty with the U.S. Army. Batchelder served in the office of the Judge Advocate General at the Headquarters of the Third Army in Fort McPherson, Georgia. He was honorably discharged in 1974.

Batchelder practiced law in Medina, Ohio for 31 years with the law firm of Williams & Batchelder. His practice focused on the areas of personal injury litigation where he was most often a lawyer for the defense, corporate law, probate, and estate planning.

Batchelder also served in the Ohio House of Representatives for over thirty years. During that time, he served as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Vice-Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. He also acted as ranking member at various times on the House Judiciary Committee and House Financial Institutions Committee. From 1995 to 1998, Batchelder served as Speaker Pro Tempore of the House and Vice-Chairman of the Reference and Rules Committee. Batchelder's two most high profile moments came in the eighties and the nineties. In the Savings and Loan Crisis of the eighties he worked with Democratic Governor Dick Celeste to draft legislation to save depositors' savings at stricken Savings and Loans. Celeste thanked Batchelder during the State of the State Speech. During the pay to play scandal of the mid 1990's, Batchelder referred both the Republican President of the Senate and the Democratic Speaker of the House to a prosecutor; both were convicted. He is the only ethics committee chair ever to have referred the heads of both legislative chambers to a prosecutor.

Batchelder was elected to the Common Pleas Court of Medina County where he served briefly, prior to his appointment to the Ninth District Court of Appeals by Governor Bob Taft. Batchelder was elected to the appellate bench in November 2000. He served as Presiding Judge from January 2000 to December 2001.

Batchelder has also been selected by the Supreme Court of Ohio to serve on the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners. He is the recipient of the Ohio State Bar Public Service Award and an Honorary Graduate of the University of Akron School of Law. Batchelder is currently a member of the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, Office of Criminal Justice Services, Ohio Court of Appeals Association and the Ohio, Akron, Lorain County, Medina County, and Wayne County Bar Associations. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at The University of Akron School of Law and at the College of Urban Affairs Cleveland State.

[edit] Election to State House

After leaving the bench in 2005, Batchelder was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2006. [1]

On November 8, 2006 Batchelder defeated Jack Schira, a Solon native who recently moved to Medina County from Clark County. This April, 6 months after Jack Schira's inaccurate campaign auto-dialed phone calls attacking Batchelder's Vietnam war record, the bipartisan Ohio Elections Commission voted to reprimand Jack Schira.

In 2007, Representative Batchelder was named chairman of the House Insurance Committee. He also serves on the Financial Institutions, Real Estate & Securities, Judiciary, and Public Utilities committees.

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