“Humbled was my first reaction,” he said. “It’s nice when colleagues recognize you”.
It’s only was the third time the county bar association has presented the award. The previous recipients were retired Mason Municipal Court Judge David Batsche and Lebanon lawyer Bill Kaufman.
A 1965 graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a 1968 graduate of UC’s College of Law, Duning, 67, started his career as an assistant city prosecutor and later as assistant city solicitor in Cincinnati.
He was Lebanon’s city attorney from 1974 to 1999. In 1975, Duning joined Meryl B. Gray as an associate with and later became a partner in the firm of Gray & Duning. He is now the principal partner of the firm.
Duning has the highest Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Rating in both legal ability and ethical standards.
He has been an active member of the Warren County Bar Association and served as president in 1998. Duning has also served on a number of committees and has served more than 10 years on the Grievance Committee.
He also has been an active member of the Ohio State Bar Association and was the first Warren County lawyer to be elected by lawyers in five counties to serve on the state bar association’s Board of Governors.
Duning has also served as a trustee of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Commission on Judicial Candidates of the state bar association, a trustee of the Ohio Bar Foundation since 1987, and the state bar association’s Council of Delegates since 1978.
He has served as president of the Warren County Historical Society for a number of years and as president of the Area Progress Council of Warren County since 2008.
The Warren County Bar Association is a professional organization with a membership of 300 local lawyers.
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