Keating Muething & Klekamp

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL is a law firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. IT Works in in corporate law and specializes in commercial finance, bankruptcy, real estate law, and labor law. As of around 2007, it has some 110 attorneys, AbOUT 400 employees in total, and an estimated $34 million in annual billings. Unusually for a firm of its size, it has only one office, in Cincinnati.

It was founded as Keating, Muething & Keating in 1954 by brothers Charles Keating, Jr. and William J. Keating and John L. Muething, a friend of Charles Keating's from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Beginning in the late 1950s, the firm's virtually sole client became Carl Lindner, Jr. and his American Financial Corporation.

William Keating left the firm in 1959, when he was elected Municipal Court Judge. Donald P. Klekamp joined the firm to replace him, and some years later he made partner and the firm's name was changed to Keating Muething & Klekamp.

Charles Keating left the firm in 1972 and joined American Financial Corporation. As head of American Continental Corporation, he subsequently became a major figure in the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s, was at the center of the Keating Five political scandal, and was convicted of federal and state charges and served several years in prison.

Keating Muething & Klekamp subsequently branched out its business, and its client list has included Cintas Corporation, Fifth Third Bank, and McDonald's Corporation.

The firm has historically had strong connections to the U.S. Republican Party. Founding partner William Keating would go on to become a Republican U.S. House of Representatives member from Ohio's 1st congressional district in the early 1970s as well as publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. He subsequently returned to being a partner in the firm.

Trey Grayson, the Republican Secretary of State of Kentucky, has worked for the firm in estate planning and corporate law. Pat DeWine, a Republican county-level officeholder and former congressional candidate, is an associate with the firm. His father, former Ohio Republican U.S. Senator Mike DeWine, joined the firm in 2007, working as corporate investigations group co-chair. Members of Keating Muething & Klekamp, as well as their family members, contributed over $50,000 to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.