Seventeen Keating Muething & Klekamp Partners Named Best Lawyers in America

Seventeen partners from Keating Muething & Klekamp (KMK) were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2007 (Copyright 2006 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.): James E. Burke (Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation); Robert E. Coletti (Corporate Law); Louis F. Gilligan (Personal Injury Litigation, Product Liability Litigation); Stephen M. Goodson (Employee Benefits Law); Kevin E. Irwin (Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law); Donald P. Klekamp (Corporate Law); Gary P. Kreider (Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law); Robert W. Maxwell II (Labor and Employment Law); David K. Montgomery (Labor and Employment Law); Paul V. Muething (Corporate Law, Securities Law); Robert G. Sanker (Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law); Mark E. Sims (Tax Law); Edward E. Steiner (Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law), Joseph L. Trauth, Jr. (Land Use & Zoning Law); Gregory M. Utter (Commercial Litigation); Mark J. Weber (Real Estate Law) and Herbert B. Weiss (Project Finance Law, Real Estate Law).

The 2007 edition is the thirteenth edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which 18,500 leading attorneys throughout the country cast more than a million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

Mr. Burke’s practice focuses on complex corporate and commercial litigation, including both trial and appellate practice, in state and federal court. He has handled cases before courts in Ohio, Kentucky, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado and Delaware. He has significant experience in financial and transactional cases, commercial matters, class and derivative actions and actions arising under the federal securities laws. In 1997, Mr. Burke was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, membership in which is extended by invitation only to “experienced trial lawyers who have demonstrated exceptional skill as advocates and whose career has been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism and civility.”

Mr. Coletti’s practice is concentrated in the corporate, securities and financing areas where he has extensive experience in forming joint ventures, initial public offerings of securities, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures representing both public and closely-held corporations. A partner with the firm since 1988, he currently supervises a transaction team that has overseen more than 300 acquisition and divestiture transactions in the past five years with an aggregate transaction value in the billions of dollars. Mr. Coletti also serves in a general counsel capacity for several firm clients and represents investment partnerships and individuals in private equity investments and venture capital based transactions. He is also active in counseling start-up companies and preparing companies for sale and generational transitions of family businesses. He is a member of the firm''s Board of Directors and is a frequent speaker at seminars on merger and acquisition topics and negotiating strategies.

Mr. Gilligan is the senior member of the firm’s litigation department. He practices as a trial lawyer in general litigation, including commercial and other complex class action and consolidated litigation, products liability, personal injury, medical malpractice, insurance, and environmental litigation. Mr. Gilligan has received professional distinctions in his litigation specialty by being named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (1985 to present); and an Advocate in the American Board of Trial Advocates (1989 to present). In addition to practicing before the courts of Ohio as well as many other state and federal courts throughout the United States, Mr. Gilligan has also been involved in many arbitration and mediation matters both as an advocate for a party or as "Arbitrator or Mediator."

Mr. Goodson is the leader of the firm''s employee benefits & executive compensation practice group. His practice is concentrated in employee benefits, ERISA and related tax matters. He has extensive experience with qualified retirement plans, executive compensation matters, health and welfare benefit plans and related tax matters. Mr. Goodson has substantial experience with the negotiation and structuring of employee benefit matters in connection with acquisitions and mergers. He assists clients regularly in the re-design of employee benefit packages intended to reduce costs while providing appropriate incentives to employees. Mr. Goodson advises clients as to risk reduction and strategies in the context of employee benefit plan claims and fiduciary matters.

Mr. Irwin has represented creditors’ committees, court appointed legal representatives, and the trustees of mass tort settlement trusts in large mass tort bankruptcy proceedings. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America for more than five years. Mr. Irwin is lead counsel to the Celotex and UNR asbestos trusts, respectively one of the largest and one of the oldest such asbestos settlement trusts operating today. Mr. Irwin also represents secured and unsecured commercial creditors in insolvency related matters inside and outside bankruptcy proceedings. He regularly appears in bankruptcy courts throughout the nation.

Mr. Klekamp's practice is concentrated in general corporate, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and finance areas, and includes representation of numerous corporations, real estate developers, and small and medium size businesses. Mr. Klekamp has been successful in helping to nurture developing businesses and with assisting these businesses in selling their securities to the public in initial public offerings.

Mr. Kreider concentrates his practice in the areas of securities regulation compliance, public offerings, private offerings, mergers and acquisitions and business planning and formation. Mr. Kreider has been an Adjunct Professor in securities regulation since 1977 at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and is Chairman of the Corporation Law Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association for 2003-2004.

Mr. Maxwell has practiced for 36 years, representing management in all areas of labor and employment law. His extensive experience includes labor negotiations, arbitrations, employment law litigation in federal and state courts and administrative proceedings before federal and state agencies. He has been a part-time instructor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and has co-authored several books, articles and legal publications dealing with labor and employment law.

Mr. Montgomery serves as the practice group leader for KMK’s labor and employment group. He has represented employers throughout the country on a broad spectrum of employment related issues. His trial experience includes federal and state employment discrimination, FMLA and workplace harassment lawsuits; wage and hour claims, including class and collective actions; unfair competition and trade secret litigation; National Labor Relations Board proceeding hearings and appeals; and arbitration pursuant to union contracts and individual employment agreements. He has negotiated union contracts and represented employers in connection with union organizing drives and decertification elections.

Mr. Muething’s practice is concentrated in the areas of business planning, corporate law and real estate development. He represents both public and private companies involved in a wide range of industries including insurance and real estate development. Mr. Muething has served as the Managing Partner of the firm since 1995.

Mr. Sanker’s practice is primarily concentrated in the areas of bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors'' rights, but he also represents a number of small businesses on general corporate matters. He is a frequent speaker on insolvency related topics and is currently Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar, Inc. Mr. Sanker has extensive experience in representing debtors, creditors, and creditors' committees in Chapter 11 cases and in out of court restructurings. He has appeared in Bankruptcy Courts all over the country.

Mr. Sims practices in the business representation & transactions practice group. He works primarily in the federal income tax, corporate and health care areas. Mr. Sims'' federal tax practice involves individual, corporate, S corporation and partnership tax planning, including executive compensation and like kind exchanges. He has been involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions, focusing primarily on tax analysis and disclosure of tax considerations. Additionally, Mr. Sims has significant experience focusing on tax issues related to the formation and operation of tax exempt organizations. Mr. Sims' business practice involves representing closely held businesses and family businesses regarding organizational, operational and succession issues. His healthcare practice concentrates on the business and tax aspects of healthcare law, involving the representation of physician practices and other healthcare providers.

Mr. Steiner is co-leader of the firm’s business representation & transactions group. The focus of his practice is corporate, securities and financing law, where he has extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures representing both public and closely-held corporations and other entities. Mr. Steiner is part of the team at KMK that has overseen more than 300 acquisition and divestiture transactions in the past five years with an aggregate transaction value in the billions of dollars. He also regularly represents investment limited partnerships in venture capital and private equity investment transactions, as well as institutional investors in their acquisitions of interests in venture capital and private equity limited partnerships. He has significant experience in initial and follow-on public offerings of securities, and in representing issuers and investors in private placements of securities. He also regularly represents franchisors and franchisees.

Mr. Trauth's practice is concentrated in areas of civil litigation, zoning and planning law and real estate law. He has been extremely successful in major rezoning for hundreds of local and national clients in Ohio and Kentucky and in obtaining real estate property tax reductions for major commercial properties in this region. Mr. Trauth has presented seminars on zoning, land use and eminent domain issues throughout Ohio and in June of 2006, he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, supporting real estate property rights legislation H.R. 4772.

Mr. Utter’s practice is concentrated in the areas of class action, multi-district litigation, complex commercial litigation, personal injury, product liability and medical malpractice. He is co-chair of the litigation practice group at KMK. He has significant experience in trial and appellate, state and federal courts throughout the United States. He has successfully represented defendants and plaintiffs in litigation, and has obtained verdicts and settlements in both commercial and personal injury related litigation, including serving as lead counsel in several class action lawsuits.

Mr. Weber’s practice is concentrated in the areas of real estate acquisition, development, construction and finance with an emphasis on conventional and public assisted financing programs. He also works in the areas of municipal bond law and general corporate law.

Mr. Weiss has extensive experience in the representation of real estate developers and entrepreneurs, builders, financial institutions and investors in real estate. Mr. Weiss has lectured on real estate matters and participated in seminars for the University of Cincinnati College of Law, the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, the Ohio Real Estate Law Institute, the National Business Institute, Inc., and the Cincinnati Bar Association.

KMK, a full-service Cincinnati law firm, was founded in 1954. We have approximately 100 lawyers and a support staff of more than 150 employees. For more than 50 years, we have contributed to the success of many businesses from Fortune 500 corporations and small start-up companies to non-profit organizations and government entities. Our mission is to provide high quality legal counsel to clients by meeting their identified needs and developing appropriate solutions. Our vision is to excel as a law firm by recruiting and retaining quality attorneys and personnel with diverse social, ethnic and political backgrounds.