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Joseph D. Kirby is the Law Director for the City of Wellston.

Joseph D. Kirby is licensed to practice law in all Ohio State Courts and in the Federal Court of the Southern District of Ohio.  Attorney Kirby has been practicing law since 1991. He is a graduate of Miami University and the University of Toledo, College of Law.  While his office is in Jackson County, he regularly practices in many counties in southeastern Ohio. He has provided legal services for many business owners in the area and is regular counsel for businesses in Jackson, Gallia, Athens, Meigs, Scioto, Vinton, Pike and Ross counties. Mr. Kirby also is the legal counsel for the City of Jackson and provides legal counsel to the city on a variety of municipal issues, including finances, employment relations and litigation.

The duties of the Law Director are defined by Ohio Revised Code, including Sections 733.49 through 733.621, which provide in part that :

• The city director of law shall prepare all contracts, bonds, and other instruments in writing in which the city is concerned, and shall serve the several directors and officers provided in Title VII [7] of the Revised Code as legal counsel and attorney.
• ORC 733.51 The director of law shall be prosecuting attorney of the mayor’s court. ORC 733.51 The city director of law as prosecuting attorney of the mayor’s court shall prosecute all cases brought before the court, and perform the
  same duties, as far as they are applicable thereto, as required of the prosecuting attorney of the county.
• ORC 733.52. The city director of law, when required to do so by resolution of the legislative authority of the city, shall prosecute or defend on behalf of the city, all complaints, suits, and controversies in which the city is a party, and such other suits, matters, and controversies as he is, by resolution or ordinance, directed to prosecute. He shall not be required to prosecute any action before the mayor of the city for the violation of an ordinance without first advising such action.
• ORC 733.53 When an officer of a city entertains doubts concerning the law in any matter before him in his official capacity, and desires the opinion of the city director of law, he shall clearly state to the director of law, in writing, the question upon which the opinion is desired, and thereupon the director of law shall, within a reasonable time, reply orally or in writing to such inquiry. The right conferred upon such officers by this section extends to the legislative authority of the city, and to each board provided for in Title VII [7] of the Revised Code. ORC 733.54

The Law Director can be contacted by mail at the Wellston City Building, 203 E. Broadway, Wellston, Ohio 45692.

The City of Wellston is an equal opportunity provider and employer