The Trustees Award is given annually by the Toledo Bar Association Board of Directors to a member of the Association who exemplifies professionalism in the practice of law and who has demonstrated a commitment to improving the legal profession through active involvement in the TBA.
The TBA Board is pleased to present the 2026 Trustees Award to Nicholas Davis Wittenberg.
Just about every attorney in town is familiar with the Toledo Way of practicing law—the collegiality, professionalism, and genuine commitment to helping one another succeed.
For the TBA’s 2026 Trustee Award winner, that ethos is a way of life that ties him to his hometown, even as he now lives and works about 500 miles away.
Nicholas Wittenberg may be based out of the D.C. area now—Alexandria, VA to be specific—but that hasn’t stopped him from giving back to the community he grew up in. Whether it’s serving as chair of the TBA Technology Committee or helping to coordinate CLEs as a member of the organization, Nick’s always thinking about how he can give back to the community that raised him. He even traces that desire as far back as high school, with the Toledo Way being a sort of expansion of the “Man for Others” mentality he learned at St. John’s Jesuit.
Growing up, he always had an interest in technology. He remembers as a young kid waking his parents up in the middle of the night to ask them how light bulbs were made. So naturally, his birthday gift that year was the book “How Things Are Made.” That intellectual curiosity paired nicely with an interest in the law, which Nick believes is at its core about asking questions and challenging evidence. And marrying those two interests is ultimately how he ended up where he is today.
Nick laughs now about how his first brush with the law came as a driver in high school when dealing with a speeding ticket. He brought a legal pad with him and took the bold approach of recommending to the judge what an appropriate sentence for himself would be. “I’ve learned now that’s not the best
thing to do,” he jokes, but that experience did help eventually lead to him taking the pre-law track at the University of Toledo.
While in undergrad, Nick had a handful of internships in the D.C. area. But it was a one-credit flex class on weekends in law school at Toledo that connected him with a paid summer position at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that really got his foot in the door with government work. So when he was a few years into his career and a former boss at the EPA reached out, it was a no-brainer for Nick.
After five years with the EPA, he was given the opportunity to make the move to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and jumped at the chance. What was supposed to be a six-month stint turned into a two-year tour of duty, but he loved it. In an office of just three attorneys, he got to touch on anything and everything in the law. And he even got the office’s director to sign his copy of “How Things Are Made,” which he was able to gift back to his parents as a thank you for their support of his interests and late night curiosity.
Now, Nick turned his attention to one specific thing he’s worked with throughout his entire tenure in the D.C. area: artificial intelligence. Nick understands the skepticism around AI—and not just because he grew up as a kid loving movies like “Enemy of the State” that cautioned against Big Brother and all its resources—but he also believes that the race to utilize AI to its capabilities is one that the country needs to win, as he doesn’t think the U.S.’s adversaries care about privacy or ethics in the same way. And his work touches on what he considers the “low hanging fruit” of AI. For example, while employed as corporate counsel and senior advisor for legal technology and innovation at Armedia in the D.C. area, he’s been a member of the FOIA Advisory Committee established by the National Archives for a couple years now and has particularly focused on shaping the future of FOIA processes by integrating AI to make them more efficient and accurate. But in general, he’s focused on privacy protections, policy and regulations, and the ways AI can be used in the legal sphere to help lawyers for the better—“we’re all building the plane as we fly it,” he explains.
But having been in the D.C. area now for the better part of the last decade, Nick acknowledges the biggest challenge is the limited interactions enjoyed with other attorneys in that community. Whereas attorneys in Toledo whose focus spans the gamut will run into each other at some point thanks to the TBA, Nick is amazed at how attorneys who work at the EPA like he once did may never meet attorneys working just across the street. And that’s why even being hundreds of miles away, he’s still looking to get back when he can and give back how he can. He wants the next generation of lawyers to see the value the TBA provides and take advantage of the opportunity it presents.
He’s extremely grateful to the many lawyers, judges, and leaders who have helped him throughout his career, and he thinks their impact is embodied by the Trustee Award. “I want to continue to pay it forward and keep the lifeblood of the Toledo Legal Way alive.”
Article by Benjamin Padanilam
