MEET HAPPY

Happy Wern Di Censo is the attorney owner of The Happy Wern DiCenso Law Firm, LLC.  based in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Happy's professional legal experience is in criminal defense, child and family welfare law and legal advocacy.  She has practiced in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and the greater Cleveland areas.  

Happy as an attorney advocate is comfortable in the courtroom, in adversarial professional settings and as a legal writer.  She loves the law and loves what she does.

As a public defender, Happy was honored to be selected by the local Women Safe Organization in Chardon, Ohio for their 2019 Advocate of the Year award. 

As a former public defender working in diverse and fast paced legal settings, she integrates courtroom experience with legal research, writing, motion and trial practice.  A combination of criminal and child family welfare assignments throughout her career provided opportunity to litigate many diverse cases with fascinating and highly complex legal pre-trial and trial issues. 

Today with experience and vision, Happy builds a law practice centered in Defense and Advocacy in the greater Cleveland area.  Happy is committed to client empowerment through legal advocacy.  She aims to deliver the most positive client results through person-centered legal representation with each client. This can be accomplished through legal strategies driven by legal research and writing,  and also by spending time with clients, educating them about their rights and the process - empowering them to assist in their own representation.  She is also a proponent of a collaborative multidisciplinary legal advocacy model in order to achieve the greatest client results.  She believes in effective quality representation for all individuals. 

Life, Education and Professional Experience in Law 

Growing up in small business law firms owned by her father and uncle in Warren, Ohio, she and her two brothers all became attorneys and practice today in various disciplines throughout the country.  Happy earned a B.A. from Marquette University and law degree from Ohio Northern University. 

In law school, she was a judicial law clerk for two separate Common Pleas Court Judges in Lima, Ohio; a research assistant in Constitutional Law;  earned merit scholarships; as well as competed on and later coached the Sports Law Moot Court Teams in competitions at Tulane Law School in New Orleans.  

As a law clerk, she researched and drafted judicial opinions in civil and criminal cases,  the most serious being a three judge panel death penalty trial. This initial and formidable exposure to criminal law and public defense led her to join ONU's Law Clinic and eventually to the development of a professional career in criminal defense law and advocacy.

Out of law school, Happy was hired as an attorney at The Defender Association of Philadelphia – the fourth largest public defender office in the country, where she was trained in trial advocacy and motions practice. In urban Philadelphia, she represented hundreds of indigent defendants charged with various assaults, grand thefts, weapons offenses, narcotics trafficking and possession offenses. 

Relocating to Washington D.C., she carried forward a defense litigation and motions practice.  She worked as a contract attorney assigned at the U.S. Department of Justice assisting a D.O.J. civil trial team defending a constitutional takings action against the United States Navy.

She returned to the Cleveland area and to public legal defense.  In 2013, she  became an Assistant Geauga County Public Defender.  Over eight years there, her Defender practice expanded to include family and child welfare law.  She has defended and advocated for indigent adults and children in criminal and delinquency cases, and  abuse, neglect and dependency proceedings.  

Today with experience and vision, Happy builds a law practice centered in Defense and Advocacy in the greater Cleveland area.  Happy is committed to client empowerment through legal advocacy. 

Bar Admissions and Licenses

OHIO (2007)   

NEW YORK (2005)  

PENNSYLVANIA (1999)