Mark Wieczorek

I’m a grinder. Always have been and always will be. Growing up in a blue collar, lower middle class family, it was just a way of life. Dad sold clothes and mom worked as a secretary. They always said that the beauty of America is that “you can be anything you want to be if you just have a diligent work ethic and integrity.” So, from paperboy at 13, to pizza maker in high school, to UPS driver who grinded it out in night school for 5 ½ years and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, cum laude, I never lost sight of the end goal. Law school. After surviving the UPS / Teamsters strike, the birth of a child, and a career change which involved taking a position with the Cincinnati Fire Department as a firefighter for 10 years…..it was time.

Could I continue to grind it out? The journey began and for 3 years I commuted to law school 2 ½ hours away on Monday and returned on Friday. Friday nights consisted of father/son time, and setting an example, to my then 5 year old son, that perseverance, integrity and commitment will pave the road to fulfillment of any dream. But, you have to believe. Those Friday night chats lead into a 48 hour straight stay at the firehouse. Some nights we slept, but most nights we didn’t. At 7:00 am Monday morning, the drive back to law school began. This was usually accompanied by a cup of java and some great tunes that inspired my soul and kept the drive alive. Music has a way of doing that. After law school graduation, I took a job as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Hamilton County with Joe Deters at the helm. There I experienced the legal system from the inside out. I handled just about every type of case imaginable: felonious assault, gross sexual imposition, rape, robbery, burglary, OVI and on down the line to speeding tickets.

As I transitioned into private practice, I realized that bad things happen to good people and that there is a little document known as the U.S. Constitution that affords these people the right to competent counsel, to a jury trial, and a litany of other enumerated rights which I saw from time to time being violated by law enforcement. Thus, I joined a law firm that was growing. We built the practice but we lost our identity. Who had I become and why I wondered as I looked out my 25th story window over the downtown buildings? This wasn’t my dream. It was time to leave. I had the experience of having tried over 140 cases. I had the knowledge acquired by handling 1000’s of cases during my career in both State and Federal court. I had the benefit of being on “both sides of the fence”. It was time to give up the posh office. It was time to have fewer clients.  It was time to offer more reasonable rates by keeping overhead low. It was time to spend more time with each client….personal attention. It was time to get back to the grind. So, I leave you with this……I am efficient, diligent and relentless. I will aggressively advocate for you during every aspect of the case. I will never be outworked. And I believe, in the words of Vince Lomabrdi, “that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.”