Keegan Caldwell gets letters every week from inmates asking for help from his law

firm. Not with appeals, but with their inventions. The firm is Caldwell
Intellectual Property Law, and its pro bono work is filing patents for the
incarcerated--an investment of years and hundreds of hours of legal work that could
cost paying clients more than $100,000.

Carrying the stigma of criminal backgrounds, the formerly incarcerated face 30

percent higher unemployment, and more than half return to prison within five years.
Entrepreneurship can sidestep systemic hurdles and reduce rates of recidivism. "The
folks we're working with in the prison system are outstanding people who are doing
everything they can to improve the quality of their lives," says Caldwell, 43.
"Everyone deserves that."

His viewpoint stems from personal experience. Caldwell enlisted in the Marines
before finishing high school, and after he left the Corps in 2001, a decade-long
struggle with addiction escalated and spiraled into 13 arrests and six felony
convictions. Millions of Americans with similar rap sheets have landed in prison,
but his case got diverted to drug treatment court; he went to a treatment facility
instead of a prison cell. "My life could have turned out very differently," he
says. "I feel a personal, social responsibility to tell a little bit of my story,
because there is hope for people."

After getting sober, Caldwell went on to college and earned a PhD in chemistry. A
U.S. Patent Office internship led him to patent law, which waives the requirement
of a law degree for professionals with technical backgrounds. In 2016, he founded
Caldwell IP, which has made the Inc. 5000 the past three years. The Boston-based
firm now boasts a 98.8 percent patent success rate, but the work his staff of 50
really takes pride in is the pro bono IP cases with inmates. "Patent law is not a
particularly altruistic profession," Caldwell says. "The most meaningful thing we
do is working with these prisoners helping them get patents, so that they can
realize a better future for themselves."