Kentucky High Court Tosses Challenge to State Lawyers Unionizing

The Kentucky Supreme Court refused to decide whether it’s ethical for state lawyers to unionize.

When attorneys in the Louisville and Jefferson County Public Defender Corp. voted to unionize, a staff lawyer filed a petition with the supreme court that raised ethical concerns regarding the effects of the vote and seeking a supervisory writ. The public defender’s office intervened.

A supervisory writ is an extraordinary remedy that should only be addressed in well defined and compelling circumstances that aren’t present here, the opinion and order signed by Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. said Thursday.

• The petition raises only speculative ethical issues that lawyers may face if they become union members, the court said.
• Answering the “expansive legal questions” presented “would require the Court to imagine and then resolve several hypothetical ethical situations,” it said.
• The issues also don’t have statewide impact because they’re limited to the one public defender’s office, it said.
• The court stressed that it took “no position on the substantive issues presented.”

Chief Public Defender Leo G. Smith and Deputy Chief Public Defender Elizabeth B McMahon represented their office.

The case is Ex parte Smith, 2022 BL 375485, Ky., No. 2022-SC-0243-OA, 10/20/22.