Keith is a Partner in Coughlin & Gerhart, LLP's Business & Banking and Litigation Departments, where he represents and advises individual clients, business entities, banks, credit unions, and public entities on a wide range of legal matters and issues. He is a member of the New York State, Broome County, and District of Columbia Bar Associations.
Keith regularly advises clients on a wide variety of complex matters, including but not limited to business-related transactions and agreements, business and vendor contracts, creditors' rights and representation in bankruptcy matters, banking and credit union laws/regulation, data breach and security investigations, trademark renewals, and complex civil and business litigation. Keith has also advised businesses undergoing mergers and acquisitions and in commercial lending matters.
Prior to returning to his hometown of Binghamton, NY and joining Coughlin & Gerhart in 2013, Keith practiced in the Washington, DC office of the international law firm of Ropes & Gray, LLP for nearly four years upon graduating law school in 2009. At his prior firm, Keith engaged in white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, intellectual property litigation, complex business litigation, and the defense of government enforcement investigations initiated by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.
During law school, Keith served as a law clerk with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York.
Honors & Awards
• Listed, Upstate New York Super Lawyers' Rising Stars, 2015 - 2023.
• '2017 Southern Tier's Finest [Young Professional] Honoree,' as honored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and as nominated by community and professional leaders.
• Empire State Counsel Honoree, New York State Bar Association, 2013
• Capital Pro Bono High Honor Roll, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 2012
Publications & Presentations
• Ethics & Professionalism: Breathtaking Technology & Ethical Guidelines, Broome County Bar Assoc.'s Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program (Co-Author of Presentation) (Dec. 2014).
• Read All About It: When Control of a Contractor Makes the News, N.Y. EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER, Dec. 2014, at 3-4.
• Second Circuit Flatlines Lawsuit Against Volunteer Ambulance Corps, N.Y. EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER, Nov. 2014, at 2-3.
• Overtime Compensation: An FLSA Lesson Learned, N.Y. EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER, Sept. 2014, at 5-6.
• Ethics & Professionalism: Ethics of Social Media & Software Tools, Broome County Bar Assoc.'s Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program (Co-Author of Presentation) (Dec. 2013).
• Federal Civil Practice: A Primer - Depositions of Lay Witnesses & Expert Witnesses, New York State Bar Association's Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program, Albany, NY (Co-Author of Presentation) (Nov. 2013).
• Comment, Lost in Transcription: Why the Video Record is Actually Verbatim, 57 BUFF. L. REV. [Buffalo Law Review] 1057 (2009).
• Straightforward Information Sold Separately: Why Current Regulation Fails to Adequately Protect Children from Deceptive and Unfair Advertising, 14 J. OF TECH. L. & POL’Y [Journal of Technology Law & Policy] 107 (2009).
Past Employment Experience
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, Law Clerk, 2007
• Ropes & Gray, LLP, Associate (Washington, DC, 2009 - 2013); Summer Associate (Silicon Valley/Palo Alto, CA, 2008)
Leadership & Community Involvement
• Board of Directors (President, 2019 - 2024), Savoca/Hibbitt Resident Artists Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit charitable corporation that provides support to the Resident Artists Training Program, a program affiliated with Tri-Cities Opera Company, Inc.
• Board of Directors (2019 - Present), Goodwill Theatre, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation working to create a professional performing arts complex and magnet training academy, with the Schorr Family Firehouse Stage serving as a current performance venue, and the historic Goodwill Theatre undergoing renovations and construction to become The Goodwill Theatre Performing Arts Complex & Conference Center.
• Leadership Council, Tomorrow's Leaders of the CYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION, CNY Chapter (2018 - Present), a group of young professionals who raise significant funds and are active with the planning of events to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
• Emerging Leaders Society of the UNITED WAY of Broome County (Member, 2015 - Present), an organization engaged in community service and fundraising for the United Way and local charities.
• Honored as the 'Top Fundraiser' for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Taste of the Tier 2017 event.
• Broome Leadership Institute (BLI) (Graduate, Class of 2016) - with 19 classmates, planned and led multiple fundraising projects to raise more than $5,000+ for CHOW (Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse) and purchase and renovate the Southern Tier CHOW Garden's structures & facilities.
