Kentucky Formal Ethics Opinions
Welcome
Ben Cowgill's Legal Ethics Newsletter is an on-line journal devoted to the fields of legal ethics, attorney discipline and legal malpractice, with particular focus on Kentucky. It's also a starting place -- or "portal" -- for online research regarding those subjects. It is published by Cowgill Consulting, the business entity through which Mr. Cowgill provides expert opinion testimony and other consulting services ancillary to his law practice.
About the author
This is an advertisement for professional services as an expert witness.
Ben Cowgill is a lawyer, teacher and author. He also serves as a testifying opinion witness in both legal malpractice cases and attorney disqualification proceedings. He has given opinion testimony regarding professional standards of care, conflicts of interest, alleged unethical conduct and the unauthorized practice of law. He is available for employment as an expert witness regarding matters of legal ethics and the law governing lawyers.
He has been practicing law in Kentucky for twenty-five years. For the past eight years, his practice has been focused entirely in the field of legal ethics. He is the only practicing lawyer in Kentucky who has gained experience in the field of legal ethics through a combination of experience as a prosecutor, professor and practitioner.
He is the former Chief Bar Counsel for the Kentucky Bar Association, where he was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all disciplinary cases against members of the Kentucky Bar. He advised the KBA Board of Governors on issues relating to the regulation of the Kentucky legal profession; appeared before the Supreme Court of Kentucky as the KBA's lead counsel; and conducted training programs for Board members and Trial Commissioners regarding their respective roles in the disciplinary process. He was also the principal author of the Supreme Court Rules that created the Kentucky Lawyers Assistance Program ("KyLAP"). During his service as Bar Counsel, he also taught Professional Responsibility as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.
Since his return to private practice in 2003, he has counseled and represented Kentucky lawyers, out-of-state lawyers and applicants for admission to the Bar in a wide variety of matters including disciplinary cases, disqualification proceedings and character and fitness hearings. He has also advised lawyers on how to avoid ethics violations when ethics issues arise in the course of their practices. He has advised fellow members of the Bar on issues ranging from the management of conflicts at the commencement of employment to the terms of settlement agreements and the distribution of settlement funds.
He is an experienced litigator. Before focusing his career in the field of legal ethics, he was a partner in a civil litigation firm and his practice was concentrated in the defense of product liability cases. He has tried major civil cases in state and federal courtrooms throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky.
He is also a well-known presenter of CLE programs about legal ethics. During one recent reporting period, he received a CLE Award largely because of credits he earned as a presenter.
He has given ethics presentations for the American Bar Association Center for CLE, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the Federal Bar Association, the Kentucky Bar Association, the Washington and Oregon CLE Forum, the University of Kentucky College of Law, the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, the Samuel P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Northern Kentucky Bar Association, the Louisville Bar Association, the Fayette County Bar Association, National Business Institute, Inc. and Federal Publications, Inc.
He is a member of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and has frequently attended national conferences of both organizations. He was also an active member of the National Organization of Bar Counsel during his service as Bar Counsel in Kentucky.
For information about Mr. Cowgill's services as an attorney, please visit cowgill.com. That site is an advertisement for his legal services.
