Members

Hamilton County: Hamilton County Municipal Court and other courts, including Addyston, Amberley, Arlington Heights, Blue Ash, Cheviot, Cincinnati, Cleves, Elmwood Place, Evendale, Fairfax, Forest Park, Glendale, Golf Manor, Greenhills, Harrison, Indian Hill, Lincoln Heights, Lockland, Loveland, Madeira, Mariemont, Milford, Montgomery, Mt. Healthy, Newtown, North Bend, North College Hill, Norwood, Reading, St. Bernard, Sharonville, Silverton, Springdale, Terrace Park, Woodlawn, and Wyoming. Clermont County: Clermont County Municipal Court and other courts, including Amelia, Bethel, Batavia, Loveland, Milford, New Richmond, Newtonsville, Owensville, and Williamsburg. Butler County: Butler County Area I Court, Butler County Area II Court, Butler County Area III Court, Fairfield Municipal Court, Hamilton Municipal Court, and Middletown Municipal Court. Warren County: Warren County Court and other courts, including Carlisle, Franklin, Lebanon, Loveland, Mason, and Springboro. Clinton County: Clinton County Municipal Court. Brown County: Brown County Municipal Court and Georgetown Mayor's Court.

Chuck Strain is a solo-practice lawyer based in Cincinnati. Since Ohio bar admission in 1981, he has focused on Ohio DUI law (exclusively since 1996). Although he travels to distant Ohio counties to represent DUI defendants, the bulk of his practice lies in Butler, Warren, Clermont, and Hamilton Counties. Chuck is a frequent writer and speaker on traffic law, ethics, professionalism, substance abuse, and access to justice. He has spoken at seminars sponsored by the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Ohio State, Cincinnati, Clermont County, Butler County, and Warren County Bar Associations, the Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati, the Northeast Lawyers Club, the Eastside Lawyer Group, Lorman Education Systems, the Ohio First District Court of Appeals, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law Alumni Association. He conceived--and has single-handedly taught--the Cincinnati Bar Association DUI Academy, a comprehensive course in Ohio DUI law. Chuck regularly advises other lawyers on traffic law and ethics in courthouse hallways, on the phone, and in the statewide email forum of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He proudly serves as a mentor to new lawyers through the Ohio Supreme Court's Lawyer-to-Lawyer Program. He has appeared on radio, on TV, and in print media discussing DUI law. Chuck has completed two National Highway Transportation Safety Administration-approved courses in standardized field sobriety testing, including the instructor course. He also holds certificates from courses in the science, operation, maintenance, and repair of each of the three breath-testing machines approved in Ohio. (Those are the Intoxilyzer 8000, the Intoxilyzer 5000, and the BAC Datamaster.) Chuck has attended every intensive summer session of the National College for DUI Defense at Harvard Law School since 2001, and he regularly attends other advanced DUI seminars across the nation. A member of the Ohio State Bar Association College every year since its inception in 1983, he earns as much as ten times the required continuing legal education credits each year. Chuck has been a "Cornerstone" sustaining member of the Cincinnati Bar Association, where he has served on numerous committees, currently including these seven: Ethics, Fee arbitration, Professionalism, Continuing Legal Education Advisory, Administration and Finance, Solo/Small Practice, and Court of Appeals. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, where he serves on the traffic law, criminal justice, senior, and ethics committees. Chuck is a founding member of the DUI Defense Lawyers Association, a member of the National College for DUI Defense, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (on and off), the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Hamilton County Municipal Court Trial Lawyers Committee, and the Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati, where he served on the executive committee and board of trustees from 1987 to 2014, including 1992, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 as president. Chuck was born in 1952 in Dayton, Ohio, where he attended public schools. Elected fraternity president and to the academic honorary society Phi Beta Kappa, he graduated with honors from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana with a BA in Philosophy in 1975. He served as a claims representative with the Social Security Administration in Cincinnati, while attending occasional courses in German and law at the University of Cincinnati. Then Chuck moved to Columbus to attend the most competitive law school in Ohio. During law school he was a judicial intern for U.S. District Court Judge John D. Holschuh, a hearing officer in the Columbus City Attorney's Office, and a legal intern with the Ohio Attorney General's Office. He graduated in the top third of his class at The Ohio State University College of Law in 1981. After a backpack trip to Europe while awaiting bar exam results, he returned to Cincinnati and immediately opened his practice focused on DUI law. Chuck has been married since 1995 to Broadway star-at-heart Samantha Toberman. In 1989, he appeared with Samantha—and Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick—in a major motion picture (in a moment of Glory). Chuck and Samantha continue to appear in many Broadway, regional, and community theaters (just in time to take their seats). Chuck is an avid French hornist in several music groups, including the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Rocky Mountain Brass. Chuck founded the Uplands Historic District Civic Association in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood where he has been struggling since 1992 to restore his 1893 house. He hits tennis balls, breathes from scuba tanks, and skis down mountains. He likes old cars, creamy stouts, bargain-shopping, taking pictures, and guerrilla cultural travel.

DePauw University, B.A. Philosophy, 1975; The Ohio State University College of Law, J.D., 1981

Some seminars where Chuck has taught other lawyers: Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, February 17, 2000 Cincinnati Bar Association, August 22, 2000 Cincinnati Bar Association, November 1, 2000 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 22, 2001 Cincinnati Bar Association, November 7, 2001 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 21, 2002 Cincinnati Bar Association, October 23, 2002 Lorman Education Systems, November 20, 2002 Ohio State Bar Association, May 7, 2003 Lorman Education Systems, May 16, 2003 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 18, 2003 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, October 16, 2003 Cincinnati Bar Association, October 22, 2003 Northeast Lawyers Club, January 30, 2004 Cincinnati Bar Association, May 18, 2004 Warren County Bar Association, May 19, 2004 Lorman Education Systems, May 21, 2004 Cincinnati Bar Association, October 27, 2004 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, January 20, 2005 Northeast Lawyers Club, April 8, 2005 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 23, 2005 Lorman Education Systems, June 24, 2005 Cincinnati Bar Association DUI Academy, September 27, 2005 Cincinnati Bar Association DUI Academy, October 25, 2005 Cincinnati Bar Association DUI Academy, November 29, 2005 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, October 19, 2006 Northeast Lawyers Club, November 17, 2006 Northeast Lawyers Club, November 30, 2007 Lorman Education Systems, December 11, 2007 Ohio State Bar Association, December 19, 2007 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, December 20, 2007 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, January 14, 2008 Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, March 6, 2008 Northeast Lawyers Club, July 11, 2008 Warren County Bar Association, July 16, 2008 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, September 8, 2008 Ohio State Bar Association, November 13, 2008 Clermont County Bar Association, November 20, 2008 Lorman Education Systems, December 2, 2008 Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, December 12, 2008 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 18, 2009 Cincinnati Bar Association, June 25, 2009 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, October 15, 2009 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, November 9, 2009 Butler County Bar Association, November 11, 2009 Hamilton County Public Defender's Office, November 11, 2009 Warren County Bar Association, November 18, 2009 Clermont County Bar Association, November 20, 2009 Northeast Lawyers' Club, November 20, 2009 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 8, 2009 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 9, 2009 Ohio State Bar Association, District 2, March 23, 2010 Ohio State Bar Association, District 1, April 6, 2010 Ohio State Bar Association, Traffic Law Committee, May 6, 2010 Ohio State Bar Association, District 6, September 29, 2010 Ohio State Bar Association, November 19, 2010 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 10, 2010 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, May 9, 2011 University of Cincinnati College of Law Alumni Association, November 4, 2011 Warren County Bar Association, November 16, 2011 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 27, 2011 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, February 17, 2012 Ohio State Bar Association, District 1, March 13, 2012 Butler County Bar Association, March 21, 2012 Ohio State Bar Association, Statewide Broadcast, March 28, 2012 Cincinnati Bar Association, April 26, 2012 Ohio State Bar Association, May 4, 2012 Northeast Lawyers Club, July 13, 2012 Warren County Bar Association, July 18, 2012 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati College of Law, August 16, 2012 Hamilton County Law Library Association, September 28, 2012 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, November 15, 2012 First District Court of Appeals, November 20, 2012 Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, March 8, 2013 Cincinnati Paralegal Association, April 24, 2013 Eastside Lawyer Group, July 12, 2013 Lawyers' Club of Cincinnati/University of Cincinnati College of Law, August 15, 2013 University of Cincinnati College of Law Alumni Association, November 1, 2013 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 18, 2013 Warren County Bar Association, June 25, 2014 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 31, 2014 Potter Stewart American Inn of Court, September 15, 2015 Cincinnati Bar Association, September 30, 2015 Greater Cincinnati Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, April 1, 2016 Ohio State Bar Association, April 28, 2016 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 9, 2016 Cincinnati Bar Association, December 30, 2016 Hamilton County Law Library, May 17, 2017 Hamilton County Law Library, August 10, 2017 Warren County Bar Association, October 25, 2017 Cincinnati Bar Association, May 16, 2018 Cincinnati Bar Association, October 4, 2018 Cincinnati Bar Association, November 16, 2018