A shuttered bridge leads to Cleveland Browns Stadium. The city's renovation plans include building a new land bridge connecting downtown to the lakefront.
A shuttered bridge leads to Cleveland Browns Stadium. The city's renovation plans include building a new land bridge connecting downtown to the lakefront. Credit: Nick Castele / Signal Cleveland

Jones Day is back in the courtroom arguing over the Cleveland Browns. A generation ago, the Cleveland-born blue chip law firm helped former Browns owner Art Modell move his team to Baltimore in 1995. 

Today, Jones Day is on the other side. The firm is representing Cleveland City Hall in federal court to enforce the so-called Art Modell law – the state legislation passed after Modell’s betrayal. It is meant to keep a sports team from ever leaving the city again. The Browns sued the city in October in a preemptive move to have the Modell law ruled unconstitutional and smooth the team’s potential move to nearby Brook Park. 

Thirty years ago, with such a high-profile client, Jones Day tapped its top litigator, Robert C. Weber, to lead the case. Weber was best known for fending off smoking liability lawsuits for the firm’s lucrative client R.J. Reynolds. 

Weber ultimately prevailed on behalf of the Browns. But the firm’s local reputation took a beating. The firm was mocked as “Judas Day,” as Plain Dealer columnist Joe Dirck noted in a column back then. 

Among the Jones Day lawyers on Cleveland’s side this time is former U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman, who spent more than three years as the top Northern Ohio prosecutor.

Jones Day is facing off against another powerhouse firm, Thompson Hine, which represents the team. Even if Jones Day fails to prevail, it can take comfort in knowing that this time the Dawg Pound is rooting for them. Woof. Woof. 

Jimmy Dimora is almost free

Jimmy Dimora is not an entirely free man yet. Last week’s news that President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of the former Cuyahoga County Commissioner and Democratic leader might have felt like he was fully beyond the long arm of the law. 

Not quite. Convicted of public corruption and sentenced in 2012 to 28 years in prison, Dimora will not be out of the government’s reach for a few more years. 

Dimora’ sentence was cut to 25 years in 2022, following an unrelated U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowly defined what counts as bribery under federal law. He was then released from prison in 2023 for health reasons and placed under home confinement at a relative’s home to serve out his sentence until 2030. 

The commutation ends Dimora’s home confinement – but not the normal requirements of post-prison probation. Specifically, his home confinement ends April 11, 2025, and he will have three years of supervised release requiring him to check in with a federal probation officer. 

“Jimmy, and all the other 1,500 whose sentences were commuted, will be on supervised release under the terms of their original sentence,” said Dimora’s attorney, Philip S. Kushner. 

But beginning April 12, Dimora will have no curfew and will not need permission to leave the house. That means he can hang out more with his pal Marty Sweeney and other political allies who still believe his original sentence was too harsh. 

This was updated to correct the first name of the Jones Day lawyer referenced in the article. It was Robert C. Weber, not Charles C. Weber.

Signal Statewide Bureau Chief/Editor-At-Large
I assist a team of storytellers as they pursue original enterprise and investigative stories that capture untold narratives about people and policies. I use my decades of experience in print, digital and broadcast media to help Signal staff build skills to present stories in useful and interesting ways.