Elizabeth Bonham

attorney

Elizabeth Bonham is devoted to fighting for justice for her clients.

Prior to joining the FG+G litigation team, Elizabeth was a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. There, she litigated complex civil rights cases to advance voting rights, LGBTQ equality, race and gender equality, abortion access, First Amendment rights, disability justice, and criminal justice reform, including in police misconduct and immigrant detention.

Her successful impact litigation has included winning a permanent injunction ending the state’s ban on correcting birth certificate gender markers for transgender people; obtaining the release of multiple clients from unsafe immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic; securing financial settlements for political protesters who were attacked by the police; ending multiple county and municipal bans on homeless people exercising their free speech rights in public spaces; and eliminating municipal nuisance ordinances that led to the eviction of women and people of color in the suburbs.

Between her time at the ACLU and FG+G, Elizabeth served as a judicial law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Elizabeth comes to the FG+G team as an experienced attorney with a passion for justice and a track record of success.

In her spare time, Elizabeth teaches Gender, Sexuality, & Law at her alma mater, Cleveland Marshall College of Law, and she manages a small urban farm on the west side of Cleveland.


EDUCATION

Cleveland Marshall College of Law, magna cum laude (2015)

Warren Wilson College, B.A. with honors (2011)


Clerkship

Magistrate Judge Chelsey Vascura, United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (2021-2022)

 
 

PRACTICE AREAS

Civil Rights


BAR ADMISSIONS

Supreme Court of Ohio (2015)

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (2016)

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio (2016)

U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit (2016)


PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

William K. Thomas Inn of Court

Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association


Awards

Warren Wilson College Young Alumna (2021)

Crain’s Cleveland Business “20 in their 20s” (2017)

Cleveland Marshall College of Law Learn Law, Live Justice Award & Commencement Speaker (2015)