Distinguished Lecturers Join Duquesne Kline School of Law

Distinguished Lecturers in Law and Experts in Residence

Professor Dan Brean will serve as Intellectual Property Expert in Residence, Professor Kathy Cerminara is the new Distinguished Health Law Expert in Residence, and former Congressman Conor Lamb will serve as a Distinguished Lecturer of Law. 

Professor Brean has extensive experience in both law practice and teaching and will be assisting the law school in further developing its intellectual property and technology innovation curriculum.  He is currently Senior Intellectual Property Counsel for Philips, a multinational health technology company. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Akron School of Law, where he taught courses on patent law, patent litigation, international intellectual property, and licensing. 

Professor Brean is a registered patent attorney and a former partner at The Webb Law Firm, where his practice focused on patent litigation with particular emphasis on appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also clerked for Judge Jimmie V. Reyna on the Federal Circuit. Mr. Brean earned his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Knowing the critical role Pittsburgh is playing as a technology center is exciting to Professor Brean. He said, “As an intellectual property and technology person, and as a Pittsburgh native, I am really energized by Pittsburgh's reemergence as an innovation hub in recent years.  I am excited to help train the next generation of attorneys to support the region's growing population of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs.”

In anticipation of the opening of Duquesne University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Professor Cerminara is joining the Duquesne Kline faculty from Nova Southeastern Law School where she served as a Professor of Law specializing in Health Law.  Professor Cerminera will serve as a Distinguished Health Law Expert in Residence helping to build partnerships and synergies between the law school and new medical school. She bridges the medical and legal professions with her work on patients’ rights in the end-of-life decision-making arena. Her scholarship most recently has focused on the intersection between end-of-life care, palliative care, and health care coverage policy. 

Professor Cerminara has enjoyed nation and international recognition for her scholarship and service. Most recently, she was awarded the 2023 Distinguished Health Law Service Award from the Association of American Law Schools’ Law, Medicine & Health Care Section. In 2017, she received a Scholars Award for innovative interprofessional work with the Broward County Mental Health Court.  In 2013, she earned an American Health Lawyers Association 2012 Pro Bono Champion award for co-organizational work on Wounds of War: Meeting the Needs of Active-Duty Military & Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a symposium taking place at NSU law school on February 1, 2013.

Professor Cerminara received her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh and her LL.M. and J.S.D. from Columbia University.  She is an affiliate member of the Health Law and Tort Trial and Insurance sections of The Florida Bar, a retired member of the Pennsylvania Bar, and a member of organizations such as the American Bar Association, and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

She is ready to serve the Pittsburgh community, combining the law and medicine. “The Spiritan mission of Duquesne Kline Law emphasizes educational excellence and service to the community. There is a great deal of service to be done among the medically and legally underserved people living in the coal valleys, farming communities, and steel towns outside of Pittsburgh. I look forward to helping pave the way toward the university’s serving those people with a mix of medical and legal professional services,” said Cerminara.

Professor Conor Lamb will serve as a Distinguished Lecturer of Law, teaching a course in Faith & Democracy. The former Congressman served on the committees of Science, Space, and Technology, Veterans' Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure. Prior to that role, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the city of Pittsburgh. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

A native of Pittsburgh, Professor Lamb is anticipating the value he can add to the law school community and the region. “I am looking forward to teaching at Duquesne Kline because of its impact in western Pennsylvania, and because the University's Spiritan tradition is an important source of strength for our community,” he said.

Professor Lamb is additionally anxious to carry on the Duquesne Kline legacy. He said, “I see Duquesne Kline as a law school that aims to train students to become excellent lawyers without forgetting that lawyers are more than mere technicians.  They have a special role in safeguarding our democracy and promoting its values, many of which emerge from or overlap with our religious values.  My grandfather was a Duquesne law school graduate who lived his life in this way, and he was a major source of inspiration for me.”