Robert J. Wagoner

Robert J. Wagoner is a distinguished partner at DWS Law - Dittmer, Wagoner & Steele in Gahanna, Ohio, bringing more than two decades of trial experience to complex civil litigation. Since launching his career in 1998, he has secured substantial recoveries for clients injured in automobile collisions, catastrophic incidents and slip-and-fall accidents.

Mr. Wagoner routinely handles cases involving bodily injury, nursing-home negligence, product liability, and wrongful death, and has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in business and contract disputes, class actions, consumer claims and insurance bad-faith proceedings.

Admitted to practice before the Ohio Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Wagoner is a respected leader in the bar. He serves as president-elect of the American Board of Trial Advocates and has held every executive office, including president of the Central Ohio Association for Justice (2010–2011). 

Mr. Wagoner also chairs the Legislative Committee and Insurance Law Section of the Ohio Association for Justice and maintains active memberships with the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, The Melvin M. Belli Society, the American Association for Justice, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Columbus Bar Association.

A peer-recognized advocate, Mr. Wagoner has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America from 2015 through 2023 and was honored as the 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” for plaintiff personal injury litigation in Columbus. He received the Respected Advocate Award from the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys in 2021 and was elected a fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation (Class of 2016).

A 1997 graduate of Capital University Law School, Mr. Wagoner remains committed to principled advocacy, just outcomes and mentoring the next generation of trial lawyers.