Professor Bettman graduated with honors in 1977 from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she was a winner of the Constitutional Law Prize and the first woman at UC Law to take first prize in Trial Advocacy. Professor Bettman was in the private practice of law until she became the first woman ever elected to the Ohio First District Court of Appeals in 1992. She served on that court from 1993-1999 and was an endorsed Democratic candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court in 1996. She has been a professor of law at UC since 1999.
Professor Bettman is a frequent speaker on tort reform, separation of powers, state constitutional law in Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court, and the election of judges. She writes a monthly newspaper column, Legally Speaking, which appears in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald. She also serves as an appeals consultant to lawyers throughout Ohio.
Articles, Essays & Book Reviews
The judicial recommendation panel Marianna chairs recommended three names to Gov. Strickland to fill the vacancy in the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Toledo.
Marianna published another Legally Speaking column in the Cincinnati Herald and American Israelite: The Confidentiality of Medical Records, which examines the Ohio Supreme Court's recent decision in Hageman v. Southwest Gen. Health Ctr., 2008-Ohio-3343.
Marianna posted for 3L Jeff Hicks summaries of all cases heard by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she sat as a guest on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She also attended the Federal Bar Association dinner honoring Justice O’Connor.
Marianna wrote an amicus curiae brief for Ohio State Bar Association, urging the Ohio Supreme Court not to adopt a position which would require the “shotgunning” (naming every health care provider whose name appears in a medical record) of defendants in medical claims.
Marianna attended the investiture ceremony of William Mallory, Jr. as judge on the First District Court of Appeals. She also attended an Appellate Practice seminar at the Cincinnati Bar Association.
Marianna published another Legally Speaking column in the Cincinnati Herald and American Israelite: Students and Strip Searches, analyzing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding. She hosted Barbara Howard, President of the Ohio State Bar Association, as the Harris Distinguished Visitor.
Marianna made a presentation to the Ohio Judicial Conference in Columbus on the most important cases of the Ohio Supreme Court’s past term. She arranged for a portion of a Mock Custody trial to be held at the law school as part of the Judge-in-Residence Program. UC Law grads Anne Flotman and Reeta Brendamour cross examined the court’s real parenting specialist. Judge Susan Tolbert, administrative judge of the Domestic Relations Court and UC Law grad, presided.
Marianna was quoted in Nancy Minson, 63, Activist, 'A Fighter', Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 8, 2009.
Marianna published two columns in her monthly newspaper series, Legally Speaking, in the Cincinnati Herald and the American Israelite: Judicial Empathy and Residency Requirements. She worked with David Singleton and his staff at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center in the preparation of two jurisdictional memos to the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Ohio Judicial Appointments Recommendation Panel, on which Marianna serves, made recommendations to Gov. Strickland for vacancies at the Ohio First District Court of Appeals and the Warren County Court of Common Pleas. The Governor has filled these vacancies with Judge William Mallory and attorney Robert Peeler, respectively.
Gov. Strickland appointed Marianna chair of the Judicial Appointments Recommendation Panel. She published a column in the Cincinnati Herald and the American Israelite, The Fourth Amendment, Resuscitated, which discusses Arizona v. Gant and the limits on warrantless searches of vehicles by the police. Marianna published The Fourth Amendment, Resuscitated in her monthly newspaper column, Legally Speaking.
Marianna moderated the Judges Panel on Leadership (Judges Allen, Cunningham, Hopkins and West) at the CALL Program-Ethics, Justice and Values. She made a CLE Presentation, Ohio Supreme Court Update, to the Spring Convention of Ohio Magistrates in Cincinnati.
Marianna arranged the Judge-in-Residence Program for this year’s visiting jurist, Hon. Thomas B. Griffiths of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Marianna was appointed by Governor Strickland to chair one of the two Ohio Judicial Appointments Recommendation Panels, which evaluate the qualifications of all applicants for judicial vacancies and make non-binding recommendations to the governor.
Marianna published a column in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald on The Right to Confront Witnesses.
Marianna published a column in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald, The Right to Confront Witnesses, which addressed the following questions: 1) Can a lawyer waive a client’s right to confront witnesses against him? and 2) Can a laboratory report be admitted into evidence without the analyst who did the testing being present at trial and subject to cross examination?
Marianna chaired the Truman Scholarship Committee, which awards scholarships to college juniors in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky who are committed to public service. She arranged and hosted the oral argument in Arbino v Johnson & Johnson as part of the Judge in Residence Program.
Marianna presented Highlights of the Past Term of the Ohio Supreme Court to the staff of the Cincinnati City Solicitor. She spoke to the Lawyers’ Club of Cincinnati on Punitive Damages.
Marianna hosted Ohio State Senator Eric Kearney, Class of 1989, as the Harris Distinguished Practitioner. She served on the selection committee for this year’s Cohen/Barbour awards and introduced Visiting Professor Qudsia Mirza at an American Jewish Committee downtown luncheon program on Introduction to Islamic Law.
Marianna arranged and hosted the citizenship ceremony at the College by the Honorable Susan J. Dlott, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Marianna published two columns on Legally Speakings: Caperton v. Massey and Herring v. US.
Marianna was honored by the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities at its 21st Annual Celebration of Teaching at Xavier’s Cintas Center on Friday, Nov. 14, 2008. She published columns in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald on the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing.
Marianna presented the Most Important Cases of the Last Term of the Ohio Supreme Court to the Cincinnati Bar Association and to the Law School Alumni Association. She arranged for State Senator (and UC Law alumnus) Bill Seitz to give the Harris Distinguished Practitioner Lecture.
Marianna attended the final meeting of Task Force charged with the rewriting of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct. She arranged a special 2-hour program and interdisciplinary panel discussion for students analyzing a recent Ohio Supreme Court oral argument.
Marianna published a column in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald on Modern Parenting, which examines the legitimacy of gestational surrogacy contracts in Ohio. She presented Most Important Cases of the Ohio Supreme Court, June 2007-June 2008, at the Ohio Judicial Conference in Columbus.
She gave the keynote address, Electing Judges: An Idea Whose Time has Come… and Gone to the Clermont County League of Women Voters at their 12th annual Suffragist Event.
Marianna received a 2008 Foot Soldiers in the Sands Award from the NAACP during its national convention in Cincinnati. The award “honors attorneys who have gone above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of the Association and its civil rights agenda.”
She published columns on punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case and on whether gestational surrogacy contracts violate Ohio public policy in the American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald.
Two of Marianna's appellate opinions were cited in recent Ohio Supreme Court cases:Marianna made a presentation on Punitive Damages to the 34th Annual Federal Law Seminar at Miami University.
She assisted Nancy Oliver, Interim Associate Dean, planning and arranging panelists for the Professionalism panel during Introduction to Law week, and she chaired the panel.
Marianna attended the Sixth Circuit Conference in Chatanooga, Tennessee as a delegate for Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey. She presented one of the Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus achievement awards to retired Cincinnati School Board member (and retired UC professor) Florence Newell.
Marianna gave a presentation to the NAACP membership on the school finance decisions and the problems with public school financing in Ohio.
Marianna presented 2006-07 Ohio Supreme Court Case Law Update to retired judges in Columbus as part of the Ohio Continuing Judicial Education Program.
Marianna wrote an op-ed column on Guns, Guns, and More Guns (District of Columbia v. Heller). She helped Ohio Justice and Policy Center Director David Singleton prepare a student intern for an oral argument on expungement before the First Appellate District of Ohio.
Marianna chaired the Truman Scholarship committee, which awards scholarships to college juniors committed to becoming change agents in public service fields. She moderated a panel discussion sponsored by various community groups on Immigration: Who Wants What and Why? Over spring break, Marianna attended a session of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Marianna arranged and hosted a visit to the College by the U.S.. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. She attended the dedication and naming of the conference room at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in honor of Judge Burt Perlman.
Marianna hosted the 2008 Judge-in-Residence program with Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. She also hosted a reception and dinner for visiting justices and judges of Rendigs Product Liability Moot Court Competition. Marianna also attended the Ohio Bench/Bar/Deans Conference.
February 2008
Mariana will receive the Ohio State Bar Association's Nettie Cronise Luttes Award at its annual meeting this May in Columbus. The award recognizes women lawyers who have improved the legal profession through their own high level of professionalism and who have opened doors for other women and girls.
Marianna has been appointed to a committee of community leaders who will serve as ambassadors for the Freedom's Sisters exhibit, an exhibit honoring twenty African-American women from the 19th century to the present who helped foster civil rights in the U.S. The exhibit is being sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and opens in Cincinnati at the Museum Center March 14, after which it will embark on a three-year nationwide tour.
Marianna attended the AALS Annual Meeting in New York City.
Marianna published her monthly Legally Speaking column in the American Israelite and Cincinnati Herald on State ex rel. Ohio Gen. Assembly v. Brunner, which dealt with the amount of time a governor has to veto a bill presented to him after the General Assembly adjourns before presenting the bill. She participated in a presentation on Professionalism and Substance Abuse at the Potter Stewart Inn of Court.
Marianna hosted a visit to the College by Judge John West, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, who presided over a plea, a sentencing hearing, and an insurance coverage issue, and had a Q&A session with the students at the end of the session.
Marianna presented Highlights of the Past Term of the Supreme Court of Ohio (June 2006-June 2007) at CLE Programs at the UC Alumni Association and the Cincinnati Bar Association. She taught a class on tort law at the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Raymond Walters.
Marianna participated in the Alumni Teach-In Day, as Lou Gilligan (Class of 1968), Keating, Muething & Klekamp (Cincinnati, OH), taught her Torts Class.
Marianna received the Cincinnati NAACP's Fair and Courageous Award at the organization's 52nd Annual Freedom Fund Dinner. She presented Highlights of the Past Term of the Ohio Supreme Court at the Annual Meeting of the Ohio Judicial Conference.
Marianna published More Muzzles (discussing public employee speech) as her monthly Legally Speaking column in the American Israelite and Cincinnati Herald. She arranged (with Jenny Carroll) a lunchtime program on Representing the Unpopular Client with local criminal defense lawyers Cathy Adams, Marty Pinales, Scott Rubenstein, and David Singleton. She hosted a visit to the College by Kathleen Brinkman, who spoke to the students on Your Money and/or Your Life: My Career Prosecuting Crooks, as part of the Harris Distinguished Practitioner Program.
Marianna was appointed Professor of Clinical Law. She was appointed by Chief Justice Moyer to serve on the new Ohio Supreme Court Task on the Code of Judicial Conduct. She also was appointed to the History Advisory Board of the Cincinnati Museum Center.
Marianna published as her monthly Legally Speaking columns in the American Israelite, Cincinnati Herald, and City Beat:Marianna published Searching and Seizing: Two New Rulings as her monthly Legally Speaking column in the American Israelite, Cincinnati Herald, and City Beat.
Marianna hosted the Honorable R. Guy Cole, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the 2007 Judge-in-Residence at the College. She published Police Chokeholds and Nonviolent Spouses as her monthly Legally Speaking column in American Israelite and City Beat.
Marianna was selected as one two people from her high school graduating class of 1962 as "runners up" for the Walnut Hills High School Alumni Hall of Fame. She hosted a group of students from the College at the oral argument before in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Hamilton County Board v. National Football League.
Marianna was quoted in Judge Painter: Say What? Judge's Pithy Writing Style Gets His Opinions Noticed, Cincinnati Enquirer, Apr. 16, 2007.
Marianna published Damaging Ruling on Punitive Damages as her monthly Legally Speaking column in American Israelite and City Beat.
Marianna chaired a meeting of the Truman Scholarship Committee, which awards scholarships to college juniors from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana to pursue public service careers. She moderated a program on Immigration at Home sponsored by a variety of civic and religious organizations.
Marianna hosted a visit to the College by former Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge William McClain, who spoke to the students on A Struggle for Selfhood.
Marianna published Restoring Fault to Workers' Comp Decisions as her monthly Legally Speaking column in American Israelite and City Beat. She gave a speech to the Lawyers Club of Cincinnati on The Legal Challenge of Prenatal Torts in Ohio.
Marianna hosted two judicial proceedings at the College:Marianna published Keeping the "Public" in Public Education as her monthly Legally Speaking column in American Israelite and City Beat.
Please see Faculty News Archives for earlier issues.