Leaving Wachtell wasn't an easy decision - it's one of the great law firms in the world, and I learned an enormous amount there. But it wasn't about leaving something behind; it was about being intentional about what came next.
The legal profession rewards endurance, precision and control. It also quietly normalizes stress, isolation and overextension. For patent practitioners and other IP lawyers, the pressures are uniquely acute: compressed prosecution deadlines, high-stakes litigation exposure, often unrealistic client-driven budget constraints, regulatory whiplash at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and increasingly complex technologies layered with global filing and prosecution strategy.
Lindsey Halligan, the former insurance attorney who spent some time "masquerading" - to use a federal judge's words - as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia attempted to ramrod criminal cases against Donald Trump's political enemies and failed spectacularly. Halligan botched the grand jury process, submitted an indictment that the full grand jury never saw, and got two cases dismissed simultaneously.
A long-time client has asked Kinney to help identify a private equity/finance attorney to join as a partner in the firm's lucrative group. No book required. The client is a top Am Law firm.
