Scott Basinger, Pandora attorney, has purchased the Samuel W. Diller Co., LPA, according to Diller, owner of the law firm that started in Bluffton in 1971.

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Basinger, a Pandora native, has owned the Basinger Law Office, Pandora, since 2010. The new owner said that the Bluffton law office’s name will remain unchanged. Basinger’s practice focuses on real estate, estate planning, business law and personal injuries.

Diller will remain with the firm during an interim period. Mitch Kingsley, a member of the Diller firm since 1993, will also remain. Kingsley’s primary focus is on probate, estate planning, real estate and business advising. Kingsley is a 1971 Bluffton College graduate. He graduated from the Loyola University law school (Chicago), in 1984.

“I plan to retain the staff that is already here,” said Basinger, who will focus on clients in Allen, Putnam, Hancock and Hardin counties. Administrative assistants in the office are Linda Garrett and Ruth Johnson.

Basinger is solicitor for the Village of Pandora. As a member of the Ohio Bar Association, he is licensed to practice in Ohio, Florida, Washington, D.C., and Hawaii. He is an adjunct instructor at the University of Findlay and Tiffin University, where he has taught business law. He also formerly was an adjunct at ONU, where he taught real estate law.

He is a 1988 graduate of Pandora-Gilboa High School. In 1992 he graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Toledo. He also holds an MBA from the University of Findlay. He graduated from the Ohio Northern University law school in 2000.

Basinger is a member of the Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce and the Bluffton Lions Club. His is a past president of the Pandora Chamber of Commerce.

Basinger and his wife, Kathy, are parents of one daughter, Laura, a fifth grader at Pandora-Gilboa. The family lives in Pandora. Basinger’s parents are Dean and Margaret Basinger also of Pandora.

Sam Diller

Diller is a lifelong Bluffton resident. He graduated from Bluffton High School in 1952, from Bluffton College in 1956 and in 1959 graduated from the ONU law school.

His family’s connection to Main Street reaches back nearly 90 years. His grandfather William Iutzi was an independent insurance agent with an office on Main Street from 1924 to 1944. Diller’s father, Leland, and mother, Helen, took over the business in the 1940s.

After Leland’s death in 1960, Helen continued to operate the business until 1968 when she sold it to Richard Jordan.