Kellie and her husband, Chris, enjoy cooking together and are big fans of Findlay Market. Even though Kellie is generally up to something, they still manage to get everything they need.

Kellie Ann Kulka is a Senior Associate at Bricker Graydon. Kellie’s practice focuses on commercial litigation, class and collective action defense, and medical malpractice defense appeals. She has successfully defended clients in complex legal matters and has achieved favorable outcomes in high-profile cases, including defamation, trade secret, and contract dispute litigations.

At Bricker Graydon, Kellie has been instrumental in defending financial institutions in class action claims related to accounting and fee assessments. She also represents major hospital systems and insured physicians in post-trial litigation and appeals in Ohio state courts.

Kellie also has experience in First Amendment and public records litigation, trade secret litigation, and appellate criminal defense. Her role involved devising initial litigation strategies, preparing written work products, conducting depositions, and managing discovery processes.

She began her legal career as a Law Clerk in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas and gained valuable experience working with esteemed judges, which laid a solid foundation for her litigation practice. In addition to her law firm experience, Kellie currently serves as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force Reserve.

Kellie lives in Oakley with her husband Chris, daughter Salma, and dog Virginia.

Education

University of Cincinnati, BA in Political Science, Spanish, Journalism, 2012

University of Cincinnati College of Law, J.D., 2016

Professional Activities

• USAF Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course (2022)
• USAF Officer Training School (2022)
• Media Law Resource Center (2020-2023)
• Cincinnati Bar Association; Board of Trustees (2019, 2020); Young Lawyers Section, Chair (2020)
• Federal Bar Association (2015 – Present)
  Clermont County Bar Association (2021 – Present)

News

Publications

Kellie Kulka likes to be on the move, always has.  Back in her T-ball days, when the other team was up to bat, she was unable to just stand there in the outfield.  She was constantly twirling or doing somersaults.  She had to dance.

She took up dancing around age 4 and kept dancing, off and on, through her undergrad years at the University of Cincinnati.  She has experience with pretty much any kind of dance you can think of – jazz, tap, partner, kick, swing, ballet.  She danced pom as an arena cheerleader and, for a brief time in college, taught ballroom dance at one of the Arthur Murray studios.

“Dance is challenging.  That was the appeal.  It’s not competitive in the sense that you’re competing with other people.  It’s competitive in the sense that you have to work at it until you get it right.”

Kellie grew up near Toledo, on a suburban tract that bumped up against the Michigan-Ohio border.  Where it turned into Michigan, it was all cornfields.  She used to walk around barefoot among the corn stalks looking for snakes – or rather, avoiding them.

“I was rambunctious – always performing, always dancing, always the loudest.”

One of her major influences was her Lebanese maternal grandmother, her “Sittee,” a woman who had been widowed with six children.  Kellie remembers her getting up every morning for mass and ministering to the sick and elderly until she was well into her 80s and no longer able to drive.   Kellie’s Sittee used to tell her to put her all into everything she did and to leave the rest to God.  So she has.

Kellie says she was one of the few in her law school class at UC to attend mass regularly.   She met her husband – his name is Chris – on the walk to late mass at St. Monica-St. George in Clifton.  They enjoy cooking together and golfing.

She can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a lawyer.  “I was always making things up, presenting stories to my family.  Once when I was in fifth grade, I did a PowerPoint for my parents as to why they should let me go with my friend’s family on their vacation to Florida.  They said OK.”

She says things don’t always come easily for her and that she’s no stranger to hard work and long hours. She tends to say ”yes” as much as possible because she doesn’t want a single opportunity to get away.  She describes herself as patient, persistent and persevering.  She is pursuing a career as a litigator.

She is happy to have landed at Graydon.   “This is a different kind of law firm.  It’s very team-oriented, very collaborative.  It makes it possible to take a holistic approach to legal problems.  Working alone, it’s easy to miss the finer points.  When you have a few people pulling together, things get balanced out.  The result – you do a better job of serving the client.”