Don Kempf is a Senior Advisor at Gleacher Partners, a leading independent investment bank, and Blaqwell Inc., independent consultants to the legal profession.  He also currently serves as an AAA- and CPR-certified arbitrator and mediator, an adjunct professor of law and a private practitioner.  Don served as executive vice president, chief legal officer, secretary and a member of the management committee of Morgan Stanley from December 1999 until his retirement in 2005.  He began his legal career in 1965 at Kirkland & Ellis, served on its management committee from 1981 to 1998 and retired as a senior partner in 2000 after joining Morgan Stanley.

A trial lawyer, Don has handled a wide variety of matters, including complex securities, antitrust, patent, employment, commercial and corporate transaction-related cases. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.  Don is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago

Don served in the Marine Corps, as a Commissioner on the Antitrust Modernization Commission, as a trustee and vice president of the American Inns of Court and as president of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association and the Chicago and New York Inns of Court.  He is a past chair of the ABCNY’s Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession and has served on the visiting committee at the Harvard Law School.  Don was a founding director of Equal Justice Works and is a former director and chairman of Metropolitan Family Services/United Charities of Chicago.  He is a member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has also served on the boards of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and New York City Opera, the advisory board of CorporateProBono.Org and corporate counsel board of the National Center for State Courts.  Don is an emeritus member of the Association of General Counsel.