James W. Keeling, a Partner in the
Rockford,
Illinois office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, has been named “Citizen of the Year” by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Keeling received the honor in recognition of his many business and philanthropic efforts. The Chamber made the announcement at its annual meeting on January 19, 2011.
Mr. Keeling is an active leader of Rockford-area civic, business and charitable programs. He serves on the Rockford Park District Foundation’s Board of Directors as its President and on Rockford College’s Board of Trustees. As a College trustee, he, together with his wife Pam, co-chairs the school’s year-long social entrepreneurial initiative “
Half the Sky,” based on the book of the same name written by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Mr. Keeling is also chair of the Perryville Path Project (an effort to build a community bicycle and recreational paths), and a founding Chairman of the Junior Golf Association of Greater Rockford, the Rockford area's First Tee affiliate. He is also a founder and co-chair of Rockford’s
Keeling-Puri Peace Plaza, a city landmark.
Mr. Keeling has previously been honored by diverse organizations for his community and philanthropic efforts. In 2010, he received the Humanitarian Award from the Central Asia Institute, an organization that promotes and supports community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2008, the Rockford Cosmopolitan Club awarded him the Charles G. Uram Lifetime Service Award, which recognizes Rockford-area community leaders who have a lifetime of volunteering and donating to the community. He is also a recipient of, among many other honors: the Rockford Rotary Club’s Service Above Self Award; the United Way’s Volunteerism Award; and the Walton Foundation’s Sam Walton Business Leader Award.
Founded in 1934, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers in 24 offices spanning 12 states, including
Arizona,
California,
Florida,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Massachusetts,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
New York,
Oregon,
Rhode Island and
Wisconsin.
Hinshaw offers a full-service practice, with an emphasis in litigation, business law and corporate transactions, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment law, professional liability defense, estate planning and taxation matters. The firm represents a range of for-profit and not-for-profit clients in industries that include alarm and security services, construction, financial services, health care, hospitality, insurance, lawyers and law firms, manufacturing, real estate, retail and transportation. Hinshaw clients also include government agencies, municipalities and schools.