Bench & Bar January/February 2026

BAR NEWS

CHIEF JUSTICE HONORED WITH NATIONAL Lambert

FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN JUSTICE EFFORTS BY TESSA R. HOWARD COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST, ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS Goss Award

C hief Justice of the Commonwealth Debra Hembree Lambert is the 2025 recipient of the national Judge Stephen S. Goss Lifetime Achievement Award for her leadership, compassion and enduring commitment to improving court responses for those with behavioral health needs. The award was presented virtually last month by the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center, the American Psychiatric Associa tion Foundation and the National Center for State Courts. The memorial award honors Judge Goss by recognizing judges and psychiatrists who are improving how the criminal jus tice system treats people with behavioral health needs. Chief Justice Lambert’s award citation high lights her efforts with Drug Court, Mental Health Court and the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health: “Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert has been a driving force for improving court responses to people with behavioral health needs for many years. Through her vision and com passion, she has positioned Kentucky as a national leader in judicially-driven behav ioral health reform. An early champion of

Kentucky’s Drug Court program, Chief Justice Lambert has long promoted treat ment-focused alternatives to incarceration or foster care. “In 2022, she established the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health (KJCMH), a first-of-its-kind initiative help ing to expand responses to mental health needs and improve competency processes. Under her guidance, KJCMH has aligned its work with resolutions passed by The Con ference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators to improve the justice system’s response to people with serious mental illness. She also helped expand court-based behavioral health liai son positions and mental health courts and secure legislation such as Seth’s Law, which addressed competency evaluation backlogs.” Learn about Drug Court and Mental Health Court at https:// kcoj.info/SpecialtyCourts and the KJCMH at https://kcoj.info/KJCMH. The Goss award was founded by the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative and is presented to at least one judge and one psychiatrist each year who embody Judge

Goss’s legacy of compassion, innovation, and collaboration. The judge was a tireless advocate for improving the lives of people with behavioral health needs who become involved with the criminal justice system, according to The CSG Justice Center. Learn about Judge Goss and the other 2025 award recipients at https://bit.ly/GossAward2025. Chief Justice Lambert was elected to the Supreme Court of Kentucky in November 2018. Her fellow justices elected her chief justice of the state’s highest court for a four year term that began Jan. 7. The chief justice is the administrative head of the state’s court system and is responsible for its operation. Chief Justice Lambert is Kentucky’s first female chief justice. She was the first woman from the 3 rd Supreme Court District to serve on the Supreme Court and the first from the 3 rd Appellate District (same counties as 3 rd Supreme District) to serve on the Court of Appeals, where she was a judge for four years before being elected to the Supreme Court. She is also the first justice to have served as a Family Court judge. Learn more about Chief Justice Lambert at https:// kcoj.info/SC3rd and the Supreme Court at https://kcoj.info/SupremeCourt.

32 january/february 2026