Biography
Mike Cappel is a partner at Keating Muething & Klekamp, where his practice involves all aspects of litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury litigation, business and commercial litigation, and appellate practice. He has a particular emphasis in trucking accident cases, significant personal injury cases, and wrongful death litigation. He has represented private companies, public companies, financial institutions, and individuals in a variety of legal matters, including corporate and partnership disputes, zoning disputes, fraud claims, breach of contract claims, and insurance disputes. Mike has litigated cases within federal and state courts, state appellate courts, and private and court-sponsored mediation and arbitration throughout the country, including Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas.
Mike is very involved with neighborhood redevelopment initiatives in Cincinnati, serving as the President of the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) from 2008 to 2020, now as Past President for CHCURC, as a board member and now Vice President for Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United since 2016, as a board member and now Vice President for HomeBase (formerly the Community Development Corporations Association of Greater Cincinnati) since 2015, and appointed by Mayor Cranley and approved by Cincinnati’s City Council to serve on the City of Cincinnati’s Community Development Advisory Board since 2015 and serve on the City of Cincinnati’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Council since 2016.
As president of CHCURC, Mike led the revitalization efforts of College Hill for 12 years. Mike successfully submitted applications for CHCURC to be awarded more than $2.5 million in Neighborhood Business District Improvement Program grants for redevelopment projects in our business district (building acquisition and redevelopment, parking lot improvements, and façade improvements), has successfully worked with the City of Cincinnati on $4 million in land acquisition and demolition projects in College Hill to create a 7.5 acre development opportunity at Hamilton and North Bend and a 2.5 acre development opportunity at Hamilton and Marlowe, and successfully led a capital campaigns for CHCURC to purchase and renovate buildings in College Hill’s business district. CHCURC partnered with Model Group and Episcopal Retirement Homes on Marlowe Court, a $11.1 million mixed-use development at the 2.5 acre development opportunity at Hamilton and Marlowe that was completed in 2017, and worked with Pennrose and D-HAS on HaNoBe, a $50 million mixed-use development at the 7.5 acre development opportunity at Hamilton and North Bend, which will be completed in 2022. CHCURC has now purchased almost 30 buildings in the College Hill business district in various stages of redevelopment, landing the first small businesses for CHCURC in Brink Brewing Co. in 2017, and Tortilleria Garcia and Kiki in 2019.
Prior to joining KMK in 2007, Mike served as a law clerk in the Ohio First District Court of Appeals. Mike earned his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 2005. While in law school, Mike was a fellow with the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project and served on the editorial board for the University of Cincinnati Law Review. He earned his B.A. from Saint Louis University, magna cum laude, in 2002.
Mike received the Community Development Corporations Association of Greater Cincinnati’s Most Outstanding CDC Volunteer Award in 2012 and the Josh Weiser Community Service Award from the College Hill Forum in 2013. Mike was inducted into Working in Neighborhoods’ Hall of Fame in 2016, and was named to the Cincinnati Business Courier's Forty Under 40 in 2017.
