2026 Hall of Fame Honorees

Elmer Whiting Jr. ’55 (1923–1995) became the first African American Certified Public Accountant in Ohio in 1950. After earning his law degree from CSU Law in 1955, he became one of the nation’s earliest African American attorney-CPAs, and in 1971 he made history again as the first Black partner at Ernst & Ernst, now Ernst & Young. In 1980 he served as President of the American Association of Attorney-Certified Public Accountants, and colleagues remembered him as a generous mentor who cleared paths for those who followed. He also served the Eliza Bryant Center, Cleveland Play House, Karamu House, and Blacks in Management.

Janet Burney ’79 has served since 2022 as General Counsel, Deputy General Manager for Legal Affairs, and Chief Legal, Safety and Ethics Officer of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, which she joined in 2012. In 1998 she became the first African American woman elected as a judge to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court bench, and she earlier served as Chief Assistant Director of Law for the City of Cleveland’s Labor and Employment Litigation Section. She holds a nursing degree from Skidmore College and is a life member and honorary trustee of the CSU Law Alumni Association. She joins her sister and lifelong role model, Dr. Nona M. Burney ’81, a 2017 inductee, making the Burneys a Hall of Fame family.

Peter Klein ’81 practices mergers and acquisitions and executive compensation law in South Florida. Before opening his own firm in 2015, he spent 14 years as general counsel and a Managing Director at Trivest and 15 years as a partner and general counsel at Brockway Moran & Partners, both private equity firms. After CSU Law he earned an LL.M. in Taxation from NYU. His late cousin, Sylvia Klein Adler, a 1943 graduate of the law school, inspired him to enroll, and he has served on the Board of Visitors and its predecessor since 2007.

Becky Ruppert McMahon is President and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center. She previously spent a decade leading the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and served as general counsel at Cuyahoga Community College and deputy general counsel at KeyBank. She chairs the board of First Federal Lakewood.

Robin Wilson ’96 is a business litigation partner at UB Greensfelder with 30 years of experience as a trial lawyer. Before law school, Wilson spent a decade as a television journalist covering high-profile trials. After graduating with honors, Wilson served as a Stark County Assistant Prosecutor, a litigation partner at Thompson Hine, and Chief Trial Counsel for the Cuyahoga County Executive. Named to The Best Lawyers in America for multiple years, Wilson has twice been honored as Cleveland’s “Lawyer of the Year” for Real Estate Litigation, and teaches First Amendment law at CSU Law as an adjunct professor.

Ashley Jones ’11, this year’s Leader on the Rise, is co-owner and partner of AJLJ Law, a woman-owned criminal defense firm. She opened her own practice the year she graduated, later coordinated CSU Law’s Solo Practice Incubator, and is a past president of the CSU Law Alumni Association. She currently serves as President of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.