"The Klekamp family's extraordinary generosity honors Donald Klekamp's legacy while strengthening our ability to prepare the next generation of talented legal minds," said University of Cincinnati President Neville G. Pinto, in the university's news release.
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.
Fear is not a flaw or weakness. It is often a signal that something meaningful is trying to surface. For lawyers who want growth that feels aligned and sustainable, learning how to work with fear instead of around it can unlock real change. Our conversation focused on awareness, integrity, and inner stability, all essential skills for professionals who carry responsibility, ambition, and pressure every day.
One way for a struggling law school to save face is to merge with another school to alleviate their need for funding, student head counts, and the like. The Appalachian School of Law is in a rough spot - low enrollment and funding issues are pushing them to merge with another school. There is a small issue: the school they're considering merging with is about three hours away.
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.
A year or so ago, most legal departments were still testing. AI pilots. Workflow trials. Small process experiments. Everyone was learning cautiously. The stakes were relatively low, and the work was labeled "innovation," which made imperfection forgivable. Then something shifted. Those same pilots became part of day-to-day delivery, and the business started relying on them. Sometimes intentionally, because early results looked good.
They don't drive it. They don't manage it. They don't control it. They let it control them. And then one day, they look up and realize discovery closed last week, the client is asking why nobody has taken the key depo, the adjuster wants a status report "by the end of the day," and the partner is asking the question that makes your stomach drop: "Where are we on this file?"