SerpApi.Org
CLEVELAND, Ohio — In 2011, as Cuyahoga County government underwent its biggest overhaul in more than a century, inaugural County Council member Dale Miller faced a critical task: writing procurement rules for the newly reformed government.
Getting them right mattered. The 2009 corruption scandal that spurred the restructuring exposed how county officials had improperly steered government contracts.
Miller needed help, so he did what county officials would do repeatedly over the next three decades: He called Dave Lambert.
That was neither the first nor the last time the county would call on Lambert. Until his May retirement, Lambert, 72, of Westlake, had been a fixture in county government since he joined the prosecutor’s office in 1995.
When Majeed Makhlouf became Cuyahoga County’s first law director after the government restructuring, he and Lambert found themselves at the forefront of a still-simmering conflict over who is responsible for many of the county’s legal affairs: the law director or the prosecutor’s office?
Though the issue remains unresolved – Cuyahoga County voters may be asked to clarify the issue at the ballot box – Lambert set a precedent that allowed the prosecutor’s office and county government to have a working relationship, even when there was a key disagreement.
“He was a lawyer’s lawyer,” Makhlouf said. “He was somebody who was able to put differences aside for the best interest of the client. And I think we all respected that about him.”
During his career, Lambert helped resolve a long-simmering city-county feud over Cleveland arrestees in the jail. He defended it against millions of dollars worth of lawsuits involving the jail, tangled with high-powered private lawyers over reimbursements for voting machines and helped define what a modern Cuyahoga County government looks like.
“It’s hard to imagine Cuyahoga County without Dave Lambert,” County Executive Chris Ronayne said in a statement. “He devoted so much of his career to serving this county and its residents, always bringing professionalism, common sense, and a genuine commitment to doing what’s right.”
To this day, the core of those procurement laws he helped Miller write are still in place, said Miller, now the president of Cuyahoga County Council.
“He’s been faithful; he’s been focused; he’s been solution oriented,” Miller said. “He’s been involved in some of the biggest problems that the county has had to deal with.”
As the civil division chief for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, Lambert represented the county when it was on both sides of lawsuits.
Lambert describes his former job as one that seeks “to keep the county from getting into trouble in the first place, and when they are in trouble it’s to defend them from what could be very disastrous consequences in the form of lawsuits.”
Sometimes, that meant Lambert was on the offense. For example, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O’Malley credits Lambert with helping initiate the county’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, which netted $124 million for addiction-related services.
Other times, Lambert was on defense. One perennial area where he found himself defending the county was when inmates or their families sued the jail for inhumane treatment. In one suit launched in 2021, an inmate accused guards of dousing him twice with pepper spray for no reason.
Lambert’s defense didn’t come without criticism. In 2023, in that same case, which had been filed in part to highlight mistreatment of detainees, a federal judge ruled Lambert’s office improperly withheld videos showing jail abuse from plaintiffs. The suit was settled for $250,000 and Lambert did not face penalties.
When settling cases, Lambert was protective of county money, so much so that “it was almost like it was his own money,” former county prosecutor Bill Mason said.
Lambert was talented enough that he could have made significantly more money working in the private sector but chose to remain a public servant, Mason said.
“He cared as much about the county as anyone I know,” Mason said.
Among plaintiff’s attorneys, he developed a reputation. Avery Friedman – an attorney who sued the county on behalf of a lesbian worker who claimed discrimination on the basis of her identity and, separately, a woman who accused a former county administrator of inappropriate behavior – said Lambert was a “staunch defender” of the county who didn’t go down without a fight.
However, Lambert was also practical, Friedman said. Once it became clear that prolonging a case or taking it to trial would prove costly for the county, Lambert was willing to settle, Friedman said.
David Malik, a retired attorney who represented the widow of a singer who died in the county jail in 2008, described Lambert as “fair,” “reasonable” and “professional.”
“I don’t have anything negative to say about him,” Malik said. “He was representative of what a lawyer should be.”
Lambert’s last months at the prosecutor’s office were busy. As Cuyahoga County again found itself embroiled in controversy over the jail – this time about the construction of a new justice center in Garfield Heights – Lambert was again asked to guide the county as it makes a $1 billion decision.
Like many key moments in his career, the stakes were high. The way the new jail has been funded has divided county officials and drawn an investigation from Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber.
“He never let pressure get to him,” O’Malley said of Lambert. “He always acted in the same manner, no matter what the circumstances. He was just a calming force.”
Running a jail is difficult, and progress tends to look like “two steps forward, one step back,” Lambert said. However, he said the jail is making noticeable improvements, which he attributed to having quality staff.
“People are hoping that the new facility will improve things, but it’s always going to be a matter of people,” Lambert said. “The building is not going to solve your problems.”
Lambert’s job now falls to Nora Poore, who has been with the prosecutor’s office since 2013 and who considers Lambert a “mentor.”
Poore said she has “big shoes to fill” in taking over for Lambert.
“His institutional knowledge of Cuyahoga County is something that was earned over decades of work,” Poore said. “He did an excellent job.”
Now that Lambert is retired, he has no immediate desire to return to litigation or the legal world. Starting in September, he’s planning to spend 45 days in Bordeaux with his wife studying the French language and exploring Europe.
“I’m just looking to move into a new phase of my life, something that involves less dispute resolution,” Lambert said.
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