Bench & Bar November/December 2025

The Professional Achievement Award recognizes a particularly noteworthy accomplishment in a given year but may be given to one who has achieved and sustained an extraordinary level of excel lence in a particular area of law. MARK P. BRYANT (Class of 1973) of Paducah has built a remarkable career from his hometown since 1973. He served as Com monwealth’s Attorney for McCracken County for 16 years. Bryant has practiced law for more than 50 years and tried more than 100 cases, both civil and criminal, to jury verdict. He founded the Bryant Law Center in 1990. The Community Service Award is given to the graduate who has provided outstand ing leadership in their community, state or nation to aid and benefit causes not necessarily related to the legal profession. LAKEN GILBERT ALBRINK (Class of 2015) serves as an assistant professor of legal writing at UK Rosenberg College of Law, where she obtained her J.D. She joined the college after serving as assistant professor and program coordinator of the Morehead State University Legal Studies Programs. Albrink sits on the Boards of Directors for Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky and the Kentucky CASA Network. She was also

She began her law career as an appellate lawyer with the Kentucky Attorney Gen eral’s office. She represented Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. and his reorganization of the Public Service Commission and won. She went on to win numerous state and fed eral cases. In 1981, Warren briefed a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1984, she became the first female graduate of the law school at UK to brief and argue before the court, returning in 1987 to argue another successful case. Warren joined Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP as a partner and complex commer cial trial litigator in 1988. She represented clients such as Norfolk Southern in con tract disputes and several coal companies in complex commercial litigation, earning the highest Martindale-Hubbell rating (AV) for her work. Looking toward retirement, Warren joined Federal District Judge Karl Forester as a law clerk in 2006. After Forester’s death in 2014, Warren continued assisting other federal judges in the Eastern District of Kentucky. After nearly 40 years of experience in state and federal trial and appellate court, Warren retired in 2018. She currently serves on the UK Rosenberg College of Law Visiting Committee.

He entered the Judge Advocate General Corps in the Kentucky Army National Guard as a first lieutenant in 1981. He was the first Black JAG in the state of Kentucky and further broke barriers in 2002 when he earned the rank of colonel. Payne retired from the bench at the end of 2011 after serving as a senior status judge in Kentucky. In retirement, he continues to serve as a member of the Character and Fitness Committee for the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions and as an adjunct pro fessor in the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics. Hall of Fame inductee JOHN M. ROGERS , who graduated from University of Michigan Law School in 1974, joined the law school faculty at UK in 1978 and taught until 2002 when he was appointed by Pres ident George W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. At UK, he regularly taught torts, administrative law, constitutional law, and international law. He was associate dean for academic affairs from 1991 to 1994. He is lead co-author of a published casebook for administrative law, currently in its fifth edition. Rogers spent two separate years as a Fulbright senior lec turer in China, teaching international law and other subjects. Rogers was an appellate litigator in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1974 to 1978 and a visiting professor at the DOJ from 1983 to 1985. Rogers is a member of the American Law Institute and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was commissioned as a U.S. Army Reserve Artillery Officer when he graduated from college, and he participated in the Army Reserve Components for 28 years, including five years in the Kentucky Army National Guard. Hall of Fame inductee PENNY WARREN (Class of 1979) started law school at UK at a time when only 7 percent of U.S. attor neys were female. Despite earning her law degree, an MBA from University of Arkansas, and strong recommendations, she initially struggled to find a job.

#UKLawProfResearch Highlight Professor Ilana Friedman recently published an article, How Grand Jury Secrecy and Bias Protects and Perpetuates Police-Suspect Impu nity, in the Oregon Law Review. In this article, Professor Friedman focuses on the prosecution of police officers for alleged criminal ity and clarifies why prosecutors have trouble filing and winning indictments in these cases. She argues that the secrecy surrounding grand jury procedures, unrepresentative grand jury empanelment procedures, and pro-police biases amongst grand jurors contribute to the low rate of indictment in cases of unjustified police use of force. YOU CAN FIND THE ARTICLE AT https://scholarsbank. uoregon.edu/items/7beb5e8f-58b1-453f-99f0-c9de49e66e50

21 bench & bar