Frederick R. Nance serves as the firm’s Regional Managing Partner, operating out of the Cleveland office. Squire Sanders, which was founded in Cleveland in 1890, now serves clients from 32 offices around the globe. Mr. Nance was recently elected by his partners to serve on the firm’s worldwide, seven-person Management Committee.

Mr. Nance's legal practice focuses on sports and entertainment law, commercial litigation, client counseling and public-private partnerships. Much of his practice in recent years has included high-stakes negotiations involving community interests. He is an experienced jury trial litigator in federal and state courts and a frequent participant in alternative dispute resolution proceedings. Mr. Nance also spearheads the firm’s sports and entertainment practice.

Mr. Nance began his career at Squire Sanders directly from law school. As a seasoned trial lawyer, he became a partner in 1987 and was elected to a four-year term on the Management Committee in 1991. From 1991 through 2001,
Mr. Nance also served as the primary outside counsel to the City of Cleveland and former Cleveland Mayor Michael White in a wide variety of community and economic development projects. In the summer of 2006, Mr. Nance was selected from among several hundred candidates as one of five finalists for the position of Commissioner of the National Football League.

Civic Leadership

Mr. Nance is a member of the Executive Committees of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Ohio Business Roundtable, and the 50 Club of Cleveland. He served as the Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the nation’s largest Chamber of Commerce, with 16,000‑plus members, from March 2006 until March 2008. In 2004-2005, he served as Chairman of the Cleveland Defense Industry Alliance, which successfully retained 1,100 Department of Defense jobs that had been scheduled for elimination, but are now projected to grow by an incremental 900 jobs.

Professional Recognition

In 2008, Mr. Nance was identified first in Cleveland Magazine’s list of “Cleveland’s Most Influentials.” In 2007, he was featured on the cover of the February edition of Inside Business magazine and identified as No. 1 on that publication's list of the 100 most powerful people in Northeast Ohio. He has been listed in Best of the US, recognized and included in The Best Lawyers in America in 2003 through 2010, and designated a Leading Lawyer in Northeast Ohio by Inside Business magazine from 2001 through 2008. In 2004, he was featured as one of “America’s Best Corporate Lawyers” by Corporate Board Member magazine, and in 2005, he was also selected for the cover and featured in the annual publication Ohio Super Lawyers. Mr. Nance was selected as the first profiled among several hundred professionals in the 2004-2005 inaugural edition of Who’s Who in Black Cleveland. Mr. Nance is a life member of the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference. He was also a member of the Cleveland FBI Citizens' Academy for 2005.

Selected Board Experience

In 2008, Mr. Nance was elected to serve as a Trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art. In 2007, Mr. Nance was elected to the Board of Directors of RPM International Inc. In 2005, he was elected to the Board of Directors of The Cleveland Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Clinic and the Board of Directors of BioEnterprise, Inc. Mr. Nance also served as a co-chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the NCAA Women’s Final Four, which took place in Cleveland in 2007. Mr. Nance served for six years as an outside director to McDonald & Company Investments, Inc., where he was a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Mr. Nance also currently serves on the Advisory Board of the National Association of Black Sports Professionals.

Selected Community Recognition

In 2007, Mr. Nance was selected as the recipient of Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs “In Tribute to the Public Service” Award, as well as the Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Task Force’s “Regional Vision Award.”

In 2006, Mr. Nance was also selected, along with his wife, Jakki, as the Community Leaders of the Year by the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation and was the selected honoree for the Ohio Cancer Research Associates. In 2005, Mr. Nance was the recipient of the American ORT Jurisprudence Award. Mr. Nance also received The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Service to Mankind Award as well as the Norman S. Minor Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award in 2004. In 1999, Mr. Nance was selected by St. Ignatius High School for the Cardinal Robert Bellarmine award.

Representative Experience

• Providing counsel on a wide range of matters to NBA star LeBron James and other celebrities.
• Serving as chair of the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Site Selection Committee for a new Convention Center and Medical Mart.
• Speaking frequently on regional economic development.
• Providing Sarbanes-Oxley Act counsel to companies before the Securities & Exchange Commission.
• Negotiating and administering a series of agreements with the National Football League guaranteeing the return of the Cleveland Browns and funding a new US$300 million stadium, and subsequently serving as project counsel on all aspects of the stadium development.