Chicago patent attorney Allen J. Hoover was shot to death on Dec. 8, 2006, at his law office by a deranged former client. He was 65. A colleague, Michael R. McKenna, and an office employee also died in the murderous rampage.

The killings at Wood, Phillips, Katz, Clark & Mortimer – 38 floors above street level – generated widespread remedial procedures to enhance the security of people in office buildings.

And a year later, the profession has remembered Allen Hoover by creating a scholarship in patent and intellectual property law at the DePaul University College of Law, where he graduated in 1965.

The Allen J. Hoover Memorial Award has been funded by his family and his law firm. A $5,000 grant will be given each year to a third-year student "who is expected to make the greatest contribution to the practice of intellectual property law as determined by the school."

The money will be awarded at the end of the student's academic work for use at his or her discretion. Initial funding will provide an award in each of the next five years.

"DePaul trained my father and got him started in the field of IP law," said Allen E. Hoover of Banner & Witcoff, also an intellectual property lawyer.

"The award will help others remember my father and his legacy," Hoover said. "It is a mark of distinction that will follow its recipients throughout their careers."

John S. Morton, a partner in the Wood Phillips firm, added that "Allen was someone who loved being a lawyer, and we want others to follow in his footsteps and get into the IP field. This award is a gesture that honors him and his career."

DePaul's Center for Intellectual Property Law and Information Technology will "find a student who we feel will make the strongest contribution to the field of intellectual property," said director Barbara Dressler.

A Wilmette resident, Hoover was chief patent counsel of Chemetron Corp. and a patent attorney with Sunbeam before joining Wood Phillips.

Michael McKenna had leased space there for his own intellectual property practice. Age 58, he was a 1976 graduate of night classes at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, working days as a mechanical engineer for ComEd.