Each year, the Daily Business Review (DBR) selects 40 lawyers from South Florida who are making a difference in the community and honors them as a Rising Star. The honorees are chosen from a pool of lawyers who have been nominated by their colleagues, co-counsel, mentors, friends as well as staff from the DBR.
FIU Law alumna Kimberly Jordan Donovan ’05, a partner in the Miami office of Squire Patton Boggs, was among the list of this year’s winners.
Donovan joins a list of who’s who of attorneys who are making significant impacts on behalf of their clients. According to the DBR’s website, “some are likely candidates to one day serve the judicial system as judges and justices. Some already have big verdicts under their belts. Others are dealmakers in complex multimillion-dollar transactions. All told, the candidates were selected not only for what they’ve achieved thus far, but for what we believe they’re likely to accomplish for the legal profession and for their respective communities in the future.”
Donovan excelled at FIU Law where she was the valedictorian of the inaugural class. Even though FIU Law was brand new, Donovan knew it was going to be special. “I met with Dean Leonard Strickman and he was the reason why I chose FIU Law,” Donovan shared. “He gave me complete confidence that the school would be accredited and that I would receive an excellent education – he was correct on both points.”
Donovan also credits her “passion and experience in health law to Professor Elizabeth Price Foley.” Along with “falling in love with health law in Foley’s class,” Donovan points to Professor David Walter and Associate Dean Angelique Ortega Fridman who “were great mentors” and who significantly improved her legal writing and analysis.
The DBR announced the winners at a special event held earlier this month and it was there that Donovan shared these thoughts, “I was awed and inspired by the caliber of attorneys in the room and their accomplishments. I am humbled to be selected among such a prestigious group.”
Donovan maintains a full plate. As partner in the firm’s Healthcare and Litigation Practices, her practice focuses on the nexus of health law and commercial litigation. She regularly counsels healthcare clients on provider/payor disputes, data privacy laws, federal and state fraud, waste and abuse laws, Medicare and Medicaid laws, licensing and other healthcare issues. She has been certified as an expert in Health Law by The Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education. She is one of 126 Board-certified health lawyers in Florida, and one of only three to qualify this year. She is also married and a mother of two boys, ages eight and six, and has a baby girl due in January.
“On behalf of the board and the members of the FIU Law Alumni Association, I want to congratulate Kimberly on this honor and for the work she is doing in the field of health law,” Alumni Association President Jeffrey Molinaro shared. “She’s just another example of the quality of graduates FIU Law produces.”