Our Firm:
About KJK
With offices in Cleveland and Columbus, KJK serves companies of all sizes and sectors, including Fortune 500 corporations, nonprofits, mid-market companies, small businesses, start-ups and other entrepreneurs. We are a full-service law firm built for business – and beyond. Our robust practice areas serve clients locally and nationally, with the combined experience of our skilled team of 50+ attorneys.
Our dynamic practice groups continue to evolve to keep up with the progression of technology, eCommerce and globalization. From business-focused to private client services and growing niche practices, KJK offers a full range of services to deliver consistent value and meet our clients’ unique needs. We advise clients across dozens of industries on a wide range of legal issues in more than 30 areas of legal practice, including corporate law, labor and employment issues, civil litigation, construction and real estate, wealth and estate planning, cybersecurity and data privacy, economic development and more.
Since the firm’s earliest days in 1918, KJK’s hallmark has been to act as business partners, not just lawyers. We take pride in our forward-thinking, innovative approach to delivering exceptional service to our clients, providing the skills and knowledge of a national practice with the nimble approach of a small firm. From start-up to IPO, KJK stands beside businesses of all sorts and sizes to help them launch, grow and thrive.
Community Involvement:
Our Philanthropic Causes
KJK does more than solve legal matters. We are actively involved in and contribute to philanthropic causes by serving on professional, community and nonprofit boards, and as community volunteers. Whether this means chairing a fundraiser for a local charity, buying and wrapping gifts for less fortunate families during the holiday season or volunteer teaching in inner-city schools, our firm is dedicated to investing our time, energy and talents to these endeavors.
Many of our attorneys and staff are actively involved in leadership roles in various professional and community organizations. We are proud to support organizations throughout Ohio and beyond, including:
- AJC Cleveland
- Akron Law School
- Allison Rose Foundation
- Alzheimer’s Association
- American Cancer Society
- Anti-Defamation League
- Blue Coats
- Boys & Girls Club of Cleveland
- Case Western Reserve University
- Classrooms to Corporations
- Cleveland Leadership Center
- Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
- Cleveland Play House
- Cleveland State University Foundation
- Cuyahoga Community College Foundation
- David & Inez Myers Foundation
- Destination Cleveland
- The Eliza Jennings Group
- Elder Law Institute
- Flying Horse Farms
- FRONT Exhibition Company, Inc.
- The Gathering Place
- Goodwill Industries
- Greater Cleveland Film Commission
- Greater Cleveland Sports Commission
- Hudson Chamber of Commerce
- Hudson Community Foundation
- Irish Civic Society
- Junior Achievement
- The Lawyers Guild of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
- Legal Aid Society
- Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Mandel JCC of Cleveland
- MetroHealth Foundation
- Northeast Ohio West Side Football Association
- Providence House
- Rainbow Babies and Children’s Foundation
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Saint Ignatius High School
- Saint Martin De Porres High School
- Seton Catholic School
- Shoes and Clothes for Kids
- Southwest General Community Health Foundation
- University Hospitals of Cleveland
- University Suburban Health Center
- Volunteers of America
- Western Reserve Historical Society
- Women’s Legal Society
A - Ci
- Adoption Network Cleveland
- AJC Cleveland
- Akron Law School
- American Friends of Ogen, Inc.
- American Health Lawyers Association
- The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- American Latvian Youth Association
- Anti-Defamation League
- Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra
- Autism Speaks
- Bay Rockets Athletics Association
- BBYO (Jewish Teen Leadership Organization)
- Berea Education Foundation
- Blue Coats
- Bond Accountability Commission
- Brandeis University Hillel
- Buckeye Trail Association
- Bunker Labs
- Case Western Reserve University
- The Childhood League Center
- The Circle
- City of University Heights
- Cleveland Heights Historical Society
- Cleveland Hillel Foundation
- Cleveland Jewish News
- Cleveland Leadership Center
- Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
CJ - H
- Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Legal Technology & Legal Innovators Committees
- CMBA Reach Out for Non-Profits
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Cleveland Play House
- Cleveland State University Foundation
- Crossroads Men’s Crisis Center
- Cuyahoga Community College Foundation
- Cuyahoga County Juvenile Diversion Program
- David & Inez Myers Foundation
- Destination Cleveland
- Elderly Advocates
- The Eliza Jennings Group
- Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies
- Flying Horse Farms
- Forest Hills Home Owners
- FRONT Exhibition Company, Inc.
- Fuchs Mizrachi School
- The Gathering Place
- Give! Chagrin Valley Women’s League
- Greater Cleveland Film Commission
- Greater Cleveland Sports Commission
- Green Road Synagogue
- The Holden Arboretum
H - R
- Hudson Chamber of Commerce
- Intermuseum Conservation Association
- Irish Civic Society
- Jewish Education Center of Cleveland
- Jewish Federation of Cleveland
- Junior Achievement
- Key Entrepreneurial Development Center
- The Lawyers Guild of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
- Legal Aid Society
- Living the Classical Life
- Mandel JCC of Cleveland
- Make-A-Wish Foundation
- MetroHealth Foundation
- The Michael D. Symon Foundation
- Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation
- Musical Arts Association (Cleveland Symphony Orchestra)
- Notre Dame Club of Cleveland
- Oberlin College Library
- The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges
- The Positive Education Program
- Princeton Association of Northeast Ohio
- Rainbow Babies and Children’s Foundation
R - Z
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Rocky River School City Schools
- Rotary Club of Hudson
- Rowfant Club
- Saint Dominic Church Music Ministry
- Saint Ignatius High School
- Saint Martin De Porres High School
- Saint Raphael Catholic Church
- Seton Catholic School
- Shaker Heights City Council
- Southwest General Community Health Foundation
- A Special Wish Foundation
- S.U.C.C.E.S.S. for Autism
- Temple Tifereth Israel
- The Union Club
- University Circle, Inc.
- University Settlement
- University Suburban Health Center
- Urban Community School
- Village of Moreland Hills
- Volunteers of America
- Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
- Western Reserve Historical Society
- Western Reserve Rowing Association
- West Park Academy and East Academy
- West Side Catholic Center
- Wexner Heritage Foundation
Looking back
the Firm’s History
Every law firm has a past. At KJK, our history is our proud foundation. KJK’s rich history dates back to the 1918 founding of Kohrman & Kohrman by brothers Max and Joseph Kohrman, Polish immigrants who served the local small businesses of Cleveland’s Central neighborhood. Fifty years later, Lee Kohrman and Robert Jackson formed their partnership, later welcoming Byron Krantz to create today’s Kohrman Jackson & Krantz.
For decades, KJK has been the go-to law firm for individuals, entrepreneurs and established businesses who come to us for our legal expertise, business insight and professionalism. We continue to honor our past but we don’t let it limit our future. You’ll never hear us say, “It’s always been done that way.” Instead, we say “Bring us the Impossible!” because we are constantly looking for new ways to innovate and bring our talents to the better service of our clients. So, while we are justifiably proud of our past accomplishments, we won’t let them limit us.
A Look Inside Our Firm:
The KJK Art Collection
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KJK Was Tasked with the Impossible:
Bringing the RNC to Cleveland
The summer of 2016 was Cleveland’s time to shine on an international stage. In July, our city got worldwide attention for successfully hosting the Republican National Convention, an event that drew 50,000 visitors and delegates along with 15,000 members of the media to Cleveland. This achievement for the city was the culmination of 10 years of work by KJK attorneys to help bring the event to town and pull it off without a hitch.
“KJK worked alongside the city and our business leaders for nearly a decade to bring a national political convention to Cleveland,” said KJK Managing Partner Jon Pinney. “It was such an honor to be part of this effort, and to help tell Cleveland’s story to visitors and viewers around the world.”
Ten years of KJK support
KJK’s involvement in bringing a national political convention to Cleveland began back in 2006, when Jon Pinney was asked by Mayor Frank G. Jackson to help the city prepare a bid to host the 2008 Republican National Convention. KJK had counted the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County among its longtime clients, and was a trusted part of the city’s strategic team.
“Our firm has been a trusted part of the city’s strategic team for years, and we were eager to help when this opportunity arose,” said Pinney.
While the city didn’t have the hotel capacity or other infrastructure to earn the convention at that time, KJK was part of helping the city prepare another bid for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, for which Cleveland came in second to Charlotte. Over the years, KJK attorneys meticulously documented every detail of these previous bids and the actions the winning cities had taken. As the city improved its competitiveness by building the Huntington Convention Center, adding thousands of additional hotel rooms and revitalizing the downtown, KJK never stopped preparing for the day that Cleveland would get another shot at hosting a political convention.
The bid that sealed the deal
That opportunity came in 2014, when Cleveland got the chance to submit bids for both the Republican and Democratic National Committees to host their respective 2016 convention. The KJK team, led by Pinney, was selected to prepare the bids, which was finally a chance to put eight years of research, documentation and preparation to work in showcasing everything Cleveland had to offer.
A total of 10 KJK attorneys and staff members worked around the clock to finalize the 347-page proposal under a tight deadline. The document addressed every detail of nearly 50 aspects of the event, including infrastructure, telecommunications capabilities, hotel capacity, fundraising efforts and more. The effort totaled more than 1,000 hours of work and produced a bid that far outshone those of its competitive cities.
A record-breaking 501(c)(3) application
Before the bid could be submitted, the city was required to create a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that would lead the bidding process and become the Republican National Committee’s local liaison. But the process of receiving approval from the Internal Revenue Service for a 501(c)(3) application is notoriously slow, which would have added additional delay to the bidding process. The application that KJK submitted to form the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee received IRS approval in only 12 days.
“Achieving a 501(c)(3) approval in only 12 days is unheard-of,” said Pinney. “It’s a real testament to the amount of work our team put into creating an application that provided every piece of information that the IRS needed to allow the Host Committee to get up and running as quickly as possible.”
Hundreds of city-wide contracts
After many months of vetting, presentations, meetings, site visits and more, the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee got the news on July 8, 2015, that Cleveland had been chosen as the host city of the 2016 Republican National Convention. In the halls of KJK and among the public-private partnership who’d worked so tirelessly to make that day happen, the reaction was one of jubilation — the city would finally get the opportunity to showcase to the world everything that’s great about Cleveland.
“We all celebrated the great news that Cleveland had been chosen by the Republican National Convention to be their host city, but our celebration quickly gave way to determination,” Pinney said. “Our team immediately got to work on helping the city prepare for the logistics of making the event successful.”
For the KJK team, that started with negotiating hundreds of contracts related to the event. In all, the firm negotiated more than 250 event-related contracts. The firm negotiated nearly $30 million in service contracts for build-out, production and transportation, as well as 300,000 square feet of leases for the 15,000 members of the media that would be in town to cover the event. KJK attorneys also helped source 16,000 hotel contracts throughout Northeast Ohio.
Continued service to the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee
As the event approached, planning and execution of the logistics related to the convention itself was largely the purview of the Republican National Committee. But the work of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee lasted right up until the final balloon fell on the close of the convention and even beyond. Pinney served as general counsel, secretary and treasurer of the Host Committee, overseeing even the most minute legal and fiduciary matters related to the event.
Partnerships for the future
Cleveland’s successful effort to earn and execute the 2016 Republican National Convention has been called by many one of the greatest public-private partnerships in our city’s history. KJK’s efforts joined with those of city and county government, non-profits, corporations and other organizations to make this achievement possible. Those partnerships continue to this day, as KJK works alongside our region’s civic leaders to revitalize and promote Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
“The success of the Republican National Convention changed the narrative of how the world sees Cleveland, and helping us compete for conferences, trade shows and events we might not otherwise have been able to,” Pinney said. “The success of the RNC is going to bring benefits to Northeast Ohio for years to come, and I’m so honored that KJK was able to be part of the effort.”
Highlights of the 2016 RNC
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“Eight years, three bids, a downtown renaissance and one incredible coalition later, we delivered. As counsel to Cleveland’s Host Committee, KJK delivered a world-class convention in 2016 and remains dedicated to advancing economic development across Ohio.”
Contact
CLEVELAND OFFICE
1375 East Ninth Street
One Cleveland Center, 29th Floor
Cleveland, OH 44114-1793
COLUMBUS OFFICE
10 West Broad Street
One Columbus Center, Suite 2500
Columbus, OH 43215