• KDC Fall Seminar November 9 & 10

    07 Nov 2017 4:51 PM | Kathi McKeown

    Looking forward to seeing many of you at the KDC Fall Seminar taking place at the Marriott Griffin Gate in Lexington. Please don't forget to visit our Sponsors while you are there -- they're a huge part of KDC's success!

    Jillian House has organized a great seminar for Thursday afternoon, with three of the four speakers being KDC members: KDC members Katherine Kerns Vesely (also a KDC Director) and Kristen Fowler will present "Just What the Doctor Ordered" relative to Kentucky enacting Medical Review Panels. KDC member, Jamie Dittert, will present "Myth or Fact? "ALI Restatement of the Law/Liability Insurance" Edition". And closing out Thursday afternoon, our DRI Sponsored Speaker, Stacy Moon, will present "The Tween Years".

    Darrin Banks has organized a great line-up of speakers as well on Friday. DRI Sponsored Speaker, Stacy Moon, will present the entire morning program: "The Business of Law: There's No Business Like Law Business," "Managing That Business: I Want To Be A Manager (All Apologies to Mel Brooks)" and "Metrics Simplified (The Do-Re-Mis of Metrics).

    After the morning session is complete, we will head to lunch in the Bluegrass Pavilion where our Award Recipients and others will be recognized. Congratulations to the 2017 KDC Award Recipients: Diplomat: David A. Nunery (Retired); Defense Lawyers of the Year: Ashley K. Brown and Melanie Sublett Marrs; and our Young Lawyer is Tia Combs. After all recognitions are complete, we will have the KDC Annual Meeting.

    For the afternoon session, Darrin has lined up Barron Henley of Affinity Consulting Group to present "Legal Tech Security Measures Every Lawyer Must Take Under the Rules of Professional Conduct" (ETHICS!) and "Technology Planning for a Law Firm." Barron comes highly recommend by his counterpart, Paul Unger. Closing out the 2017 Fall Seminar will be four KDC members, Craig Reinhardt, Jess Baird, Norm Harned and Patricia LeMeur. Their panel discussion "A Kentucky Defense Firm, to Infinity and Beyond! Blazing a New Trail. A Discussion on the Direction for Defense Firms in the Next Decade."

    It's never too late to register. Go to KY-Def.org/Events and you can sign up there. Or just walk-in on Thursday or Friday if you have a change in plans.

  • Mary Beth O'Bryan Newest KDC Member -

    07 Nov 2017 11:31 AM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC welcomes its newest member:  Mary Elizabeth O'Bryan of O'Bryan, Brown & Toner, Louisville graduated from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.  Ms. O'Bryan is in firm management with O'Bryan, Brown & Toner and is sponsored by KDC Director, Katherine Kerns Vesely.

  • KDC Welcomes Megan George --

    04 Nov 2017 1:43 PM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC welcomes its newest member.  Megan K. George of Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC, is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law.  Ms. George practices in the areas of Education and Employment.  She is sponsored by KDC Past President, Pat Moloney.

  • Elizabeth Beal joins KDC!

    29 Oct 2017 11:06 AM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC welcomes its newest member:  Elizabeth Ann Beal of O'Bryan, Brown & Toner PLLC, Louisville is a University of Kentucky Law School graduate.  Ms. Beal practice in the area of Medical Malpractice and is sponsored by KDC member, Scott Burroughs.

  • Samuel E. T. Jones --

    27 Oct 2017 10:19 AM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC member, Samuel E. T. Jones, is now practicing with Goldberg Simpson, LLC, Prospect.

  • DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar Terms ALI Restatement of the Law, Liability

    27 Oct 2017 9:40 AM | Kathi McKeown

    The following is a DRI Press Release issued October 26, 2017:

    Insurance "Deeply Flawed"

     

    CHICAGO ­– (October 26, 2017)— In a letter earlier this month to Richard Revesz, Executive Director of the American Law Institute (ALI), DRI expressed disagreement and concern with several key provisions of the ALI Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance. The Restatement was scheduled for a final vote of ALI membership earlier this year, but the organization deferred that final ballot until May, 2018 to give the project’s Reporters additional time to consider and respond to the concerns of DRI and others. 

    DRI cited various parts of the Restatement as “at odds with the common law of insurance,” “making coverage litigation more protracted and expensive,” “not supported by existing authority and at odds with professional liability rules and the law governing lawyers,” “seeking to address a problem which does not exist,” and “misleading in the extreme.” 

    DRI maintains that the problems that it raised last spring regarding the Restatement still have not been corrected.  “…This project continues on a trajectory that is deeply flawed in several important respects. (Those include) its rejection of settled insurance common law such as the plain meaning rule; its failure to recognize the fundamental problems that would result from its proposal for insurer liability for the actions of defense counsel; and its refusal to defer to legislative determinations such as those regarding whether and when special fee-shifting rules should be applied to insurance law.” 

    For instance, Section 12 would create new direct liability on the part of the insurer to the insured for the acts of defense counsel, and would do so in the absence of appropriate case law support.   In fact, the Restatement draft itself acknowledged that “[t]here is little case law on this topic.” If the Restatement were to retain Section 12 as written, there is little doubt that the impact of such a rule would impede the attorney-client relationship of such defense counsel with the policyholder and tread on counsel’s professional obligations. 

    DRI maintains the position that it declared in a letter to ALI in May of this year: “In sum the current draft of this Restatement does not codify existing common law, but instead repeatedly stakes out new and controversial positions without adequate grounding in law or public policy.  ALI should not adopt this Restatement project as it stands.” 

    “We have great appreciation and respect for the work of ALI,” says DRI president John Kuppens. “Theirs is a difficult task, and they provide a great service to the judicial system. But a Restatement is meant to clarify existing law not to create new law; or to paraphrase the late Justice Scalia, ‘to state what the law is, not what some would like it to be.’” 

  • Welcome Michelle Fox!

    25 Oct 2017 11:23 AM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC welcomes its newest member, Michelle Cecelia Marie Fox of O'Bryan, Brown & Toner, Louisville.  Ms. Fox is a graduate of the Indiana University Maure School of Law and practices in the areas of Medical Malpractice and Professional Liability.  She is sponsored by KDC member, Scott Burroughs.

  • Courthouse Photos Request

    24 Oct 2017 4:47 PM | Kathi McKeown

    Our graphic designer, Jeff Freibert (Common Defense and our seminar registration forms, among other items), is reaching out to the members of Kentucky  Defense Counsel to submit photos of your local courthouse.  This is a fun and easy way to get involved with KDC and also a way to show off some of the beautiful courthouses Kentucky has to offer.  Your photo(s) could be used on the cover of Common Defense and you will receive appropriate recognition on the insider cover.  To learn more about what Jeff will need to make your photo work, you can download this pdf for all of the guidelines.  COURTHOUSE PHOTO REQUEST.pdf


  • New KDC Members --

    15 Oct 2017 1:41 PM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC welcomes its two newest members:

    Shawn Christopher Conley of Porter, Banks, Baldwin & Shaw, PLLC, Paintsville, is a Chase College of Law, University of Northern Kentucky graduate.  Mr. Conley practices in the areas of Appellate, Auto, Education, Employment, General Liability, Government Entity, Insurance Coverage, Medial Malpractice, Nursing Home, Premises & Professional Liability, and Tort.  He is a member of DRI and is sponsored by KDC Vice President, Darrin Banks.

    Alexandra Deaton DeMoss-Campbell of Ward Hocker & Thornton, LLP, Lexington, is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law.  Ms. DeMoss-Campbell practices in the areas of Appellate, Auto, General Liability, Government, Insurance, Tort & Trucking.  She is sponsored by KDC's YLS Chair, Jillian House.

  • David Haney joins MedPro

    13 Oct 2017 10:25 AM | Kathi McKeown

    KDC member, David Haney, is now practicing with MedPro in Louisville.