Kevin A. Hinkley has been appointed general counsel at Niagara University.
In this role, Hinkley serves as the senior official responsible for managing the university’s legal affairs, providing legal counsel to the Board of Trustees, university president, and senior staff, managing matters in litigation, and supervising external counsel. He also serves as a liaison to regulatory and legislative bodies and courts.
Hinkley graduated summa cum laude from Niagara University in 2005 with a B.A. in political science. At commencement, he was awarded the Senior Medal and Vincentian Service Award. Hinkley went on to Harvard Law School, where he served as deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, earning his J.D. in 2008.
Before his appointment as general counsel, Hinkley served as an instructor and senior lecturer in Niagara University’s departments of political science, and criminology and criminal justice, as well as the Writing 100 program. Hinkley formerly served as pre-law advisor and as the lead faculty coordinator for the university’s 2016 Presidential Election Discussion Series and Spring 2017 Discussion Series.
Before returning to Niagara in fall 2015, Hinkley practiced law at Webster Szanyi LLP and Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP in Buffalo, where he represented numerous healthcare providers, medical device companies, a nonprofit medical research institute, Native American-owned businesses, and a wide range of corporations and individuals involved in civil and criminal litigation. He previously served as a law clerk to Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C.
In recognition of his pro bono contributions, Hinkley was honored as 2011 Empire State Counsel and named to the Capital Pro Bono High Honor Roll. He has served as education director for the Charles S. Desmond American Inn of Court, and he was selected for the Super Lawyers Upstate New York Rising Stars List in 2016 and 2017.