Joe Sommer is an attorney who retired from Ohio’s state government after working 30 years in the public sector. He obtained a B.B.A. from Ohio University and a J.D. from the University of Toledo. He is admitted to the bar in Ohio and California. For 12 years he was certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as a specialist in workers’ compensation law.
A former activist for many years with the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, he served on its board and held the offices of president, vice president, and secretary. He is a longtime member of the American Humanist Association, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (for many years he was the group’s Ohio representative on its board of delegates), and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The American Humanist Association certified him as an Advocate for the Humanist philosophy.
He is a volunteer attorney for the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center. He’s very active with central Ohio’s progressive Democratic group, Yes We Can Columbus. He’s a board member of the Columbus Empowerment Corporation, a nonprofit business development organization. He’s a member of the editorial board of The Columbus Free Press newspaper, to which he occasionally contributes articles. And he’s the board president of the condominium association where he resides.
