Vandalia attorney Erik Blaine will become the newest Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge on May 18 after his appointment on April 11 by Gov. John R. Kasich.

Blaine must win in the November 2018 general election to retain the seat for the full six-year term commencing Jan. 6, 2019. He replaces Judge Michael L. Tucker, who was elected to the Second District Court of Appeals.

Blaine received his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Dayton. In addition to working at Dayton’s Wright & Schulte LLC since 2012, he served as acting magistrate and special assistant city prosecutor for the Vandalia Municipal Court. He was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio on Nov. 6, 2006.

He is a member of the Ohio State, Dayton, and Shelby County bar associations, the Ohio Association for Justice, the American Association for Justice, the American Bankruptcy Law Forum, and the National District Attorney Association.