The Community Service Award is given by the Toledo Bar Association Board of Directors to a TBA member who demonstrates a commitment to the community by unselfishly giving of their time in service to community organizations or activities that are not law related.
The Toledo Bar Association is proud to present the 2026 Community Service Award to Emily C. Samlow.
Emily Samlow is the latest recipient of the Toledo Bar Association’s Community Service Award, presented at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the bar, held June 9th at the Hilton Garden Inn. The Community Service Award is given by the Toledo Bar Association Board of Directors to a TBA member who demonstrates a commitment to the community by unselfishly giving of their time in service to community organizations or activities that are not solely law related.
A full recitation of Ms. Samlow’s extensive community involvement and volunteer work was given at the Annual Meeting. Examples of why Emily’s community service efforts are being recognized with this year’s Community Service Award include mentoring young lawyers through the Ohio Supreme Court’s New Lawyer Mentoring Program. Emily is currently working with her sixth mentee. She has managed to stay in contact with all of her mentoring protégés, all of whom are doing well in the profession. Emily works each election as a poll worker, a thankless but vitally necessary role in our election system. Emily serves on the Board of the League of Women Voters of Bowling Green. She served two terms as a commissioner on the Supreme Court’s Professionalism Committee, and as Chair in 2021. She volunteers with Let’s Build Beds, Bowling Green City Schools, coaches youth soccer and softball and she coordinates Mock Trial competitions for high schoolers. The list goes on…
Ms. Samlow is a native of NW Ohio, having grown up in Napoleon and graduated from Napoleon High School. Emily attended Ohio University, graduating with a degree in social work in 2004. While in college, Emily landed a position as an Intern at a Community
Based Correctional Facility. Her career interests were initially more in the area of corrections, rather than in counseling, despite her undergraduate degree in social work. While serving in that CBCF internship, a caring supervisor suggested the law as a profession and nudged Emily towards the idea of attending law school. Emily embraced the idea and applied to and was accepted at UT Law.
After graduation from Ohio University, Emily took on law school, graduating in 2007. Emily explains that, in candor, she did not enjoy her “1L” first year law student experience, not at all… She was in fact ready to bail out. But before she pulled the plug on an education and career in the law, Emily had the opportunity to discuss the law as a profession with Sandusky County Common Pleas Court Judge James Sherck. Judge Sherck not only encouraged her to stay the course in law school, but offered her an externship at his court. Emily’s experiences during the summer of 2005 as an extern in a common pleas court, under the mentorship of Judge Sherck and with real courtroom opportunities, helped her find her enthusiasm for “the law” writ large, and for law school. Her externship with Judge Sherck was a sorely needed and great experience, and she considers Judge Sherck a primary mentor in her legal career.
Emily’s first job was as a staff attorney in the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas. She feels fortunate to have passed the bar examination on her first attempt, but after just a year on the job as a newly-minted lawyer, her position was eliminated by the court. She was then hired as Staff Attorney for Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey, serving there for eight years. This job had similarities to her previous position, however she often served as a courtroom bailiff during trials, which she enjoyed greatly. Emily genuinely enjoyed her work with Judge Kelsey, both behind the scenes and as a courtroom bailiff.
Emily’s current job is as Staff Attorney for Sixth District Court of Appeals Judge Christine Mayle, having volunteered for her campaign some ten years ago and working as judge Mayle’s Staff Attorney for the nine years since her election. Emily says she finds the work mentally stimulating interesting (mostly…). It’s a good job for someone who loves to read and write, as Emily does.
On the personal side, Emily’s been married for four-plus years to her husband, Dave. They enjoy the company of their German Shepherd, Heidi, although it is worth noting that Heidi was inherited by Emily and her husband from Emily’s late mother-in-law… Dave is a middle school teacher with Toledo Public Schools. Our honoree is a “retired runner” having given up the long runs due to the physical toll on her body. Emily also has two sons, Robbie, an auto body technician, and 17-year-old Will, a student at Penta Career Center.
Congratulations to Emily C. Samlow, the 2026 TBA Community Service Award recipient.
Article by C. Drew Griffith
