Akron Law alumnus and St. Thomas More Award winner Paul Perantinides addresses the audience at the recent presentation of the Perantinides & Nolan Pro Bono Service Award at the law school.
While Thomas More’s Utopia described a fictional but perfect world, attorney Paul G. Perantinides has strived to make this imaginary world a reality through years of personal and professional sacrifice and dedication to the common good.
In recognition of that dedication, Perantinides, founding partner at Perantinides & Nolan law firm in Akron, is the 2023 recipient of the Akron Bar Association’s St. Thomas More Award, named after the patron saint of lawyers in the Roman Catholic Church. The award is presented annually by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese in recognition of a member of the legal community who demonstrates outstanding personal integrity, community service, and professional excellence.
The prestigious award was presented by Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost at the annual Red Mass (referring to the red robes historically worn by judges on ecclesiastical courts) on May 5 at St. Bernard Parish in Akron.
Perantinides graduated as class president from Campbell Memorial High School in Campbell, Ohio, in 1962. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social studies from Youngstown State University (YSU), where he was the president of student council and the Theta Chi fraternity, in 1966. He later earned his Juris Doctor from ÉðÊ¿Âþ» (UA) School of Law, where he was the president of the Student Bar Association, in 1969. He is licensed to practice law in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 until 1971, when he was honorably discharged as captain following his service in Vietnam. He was awarded an Army Commendation Medal and a Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Achievement.
Perantinides has been representing clients in personal injury and medical malpractice in Northeast Ohio and beyond for more than 50 years. From 1971 to 1975, he practiced with Schwab, Sager, Grosenbaugh, Rothal, Fort, Skidmore & Nukes Co., L.P.A., becoming partner in 1974. The following year, he co-founded Nukes, Perantinides & Nolan, which in 1996 became Perantinides & Nolan Co., L.P.A., where he currently represents plaintiffs in professional medical negligence, products liability, premises liability, and vehicular liability cases at the trial and appellate level in state and federal courts. He has practiced in the highest courts in the country, including the Supreme Court, has argued 11 cases to the Supreme Court of Ohio, and has been counsel of record on a long list of significant published legal decisions.
Inspired by his mother’s motto that people “really have to go out of their way to help people,” Perantinides takes pride in being an advocate for justice and lasting social change. His recent representation of the family of a 7-year-old boy from Stark County, Ohio, who was killed in a residential elevator accident in North Carolina in 2021, helped lead to the unanimous passage of “Weston’s Law” in North Carolina, requiring new safety measures for residential elevators throughout the state. Similarly, his firm’s representation in 2006 of two Ohio high school students seriously injured during a chemistry lab demonstration resulted in the changing of state training requirements and safety protocols for high school science teachers.
Perantinides has received numerous awards for his outstanding legal services. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America since 1995, winning its “Lawyer of the Year” award in 2015. He has been recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers every year since 2004 and has been named an Inside Business Leading Lawyer since 2004. He is one of the American Trial Lawyers Association’s “Top 100 Trial Lawyers.” He is on the Ohio Chapter American Board of Trial Advocates and is an Advocate for the National College of Advocacy for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He has also received the UA School of Law Outstanding Alumni Award (1998), the Primerus Community Service Award (1999 and 2009), and the Harold K. Stubbs Humanitarian Award for Law (2006), among other awards and recognitions.
Perantinides is a member of the Akron Bar Association and Akron Bar Foundation, the American Bar Association, the American College of Barristers, the Cleveland Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, the Ohio Bar Foundation, the Ohio State Bar Association, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, among other professional societies.
At the School of Law, Perantinides has served as a member of the Advancement Council and as a Fundraising Chairman. His firm is a long-time sponsor of the Perantinides & Nolan Pro Bono Service Award.
The son of Konstantinos and Hariklia, first-generation Greek immigrants, Perantinides is an active member, and former president and vice president of the Board of Trustees (1971-1977), of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Akron. He is a member of the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Fund, advancing Orthodoxy and Hellenism in America. He also recently led a campaign with International Orthodox Christian Charities to raise more than $100,000 for Ukrainian refugees.
Perantinides is also generous supporter of local higher education, having served as chairman for YSU’s Fundraising Committee for Theta Chi Fraternity; major gift donor to YSU’s Kilcawley Student Center; chair of the Parents Council at Ohio Wesleyan University; director of the UA Foundation; sponsor of the UA Center for Literacy and of the UA men’s soccer team’s trip to Barcelona in its 2010 championship-winning season; lecturer and fundraising chairman for the UA School of Law, trustee of its Alumni Association, and member of its Advanced Placement Council; creator of scholarships through the UA School of Law and Summit County Legal Aid Society; member of Kent State University’s (KSU) Presidents Council and its WKSU-NPR Community Advisory Council; and sponsor of the WKSU-NPR Perantinides & Nolan Newsroom.
An active volunteer and benefactor in the community, Perantinides has raised more than $100,00 for Akron Children’s Hospital, and he has served as president of the Bath Recreational Association, member of the Honorary Community Advisory Board for Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, member of the Boys & Girls Club of the Summit County Board of Trustees, member of the Jeremiah Milbank Society, co-sponsor of the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office “Arrive Alive” program, and participant in the Imagine Akron 2025 long-term visioning plan for the city.
A lifelong baseball fan, Perantinides has won three Roy Hobbs Adult Baseball World Series Championships with his teams, received the Silver Cleat Award from the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame, and has thrown the first pitch in two Cleveland Guardians games. In addition to playing baseball, Perantinides, who has five children and seven grandchildren, enjoys spending time with his family and dog, Atlas; cooking and entertaining; reading; and taking long walks on the beaches of North Carolina.