Pioneering Attorney Paul Keating - One of the World's First Lawyers to Specialize in Domain Related Issues - Has Passed

Paul Keating didn't practice law so much as he decoded it for a new economy. When the internet needed lawyers, most attorneys were still arguing over paper. He saw the gap and walked straight into it.

• One of the world's first domain specialists means he helped define what that specialty even was.

• Early movers in niche legal fields don't just serve clients. They write the playbook everyone else later follows.

• A battle with cancer is the one opponent no amount of foresight can negotiate against.

• The domain industry tends to forget its pioneers until they're gone, then canonize them in obituaries.

• Specialists like Keating turned domain disputes from novelty arguments into enforceable property rights.

• His passing marks another link back to the era when the rules of digital identity were being hammered out in real time.