Bench & Bar September/October 2025

McMurry & Livingston, PLLC , is pleased to announce that Lori J. Keen has joined the prac tice. Keen has been practicing law for 34 years and focuses her practice in the areas of general civil litigation, personal injury, transportation litigation, maritime, premises liability and pro fessional liability. McMurry & Livingston has been in practice in Paducah for more than 50 years.

focused her practice in the areas of general corporate law, including corporate, structured and public finance law, mergers and acqui sitions and divestitures. She will be leading the firm’s first public finance practice. She has experience in corporate and non-profit governance law and compliance issues, municipal securities law, taxable and tax- exempt financings, securitization transactions, debt and equity offerings, cross border transactions, governmental bonds, telecommunications regulatory issues and real estate financings. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, J.D. and the University of Kentucky, B.A., summa cum laude .

Eric Finke was recently appointed chief of staff & counsel for Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert at the Supreme Court of Kentucky . Before joining the Court originally in 2024 as the deputy court administrator, Finke served as a prosecutor for nearly eight years as both an assistant Commonwealth attorney (Fayette County) and assistant Attorney General. Serving in these roles gave him the opportunity to gain valuable trial and courtroom experience across the Commonwealth, handling a wide variety of felonies including murder, assault, drug, and property related offenses amongst others. He graduated from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law with his J.D. in 2015. He earned his B.A. in political science from Clemson University, magna cum laude

The International Association of Defense Coun sel (IADC) recently selected Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorneys Sarah Cronan Spurlock and Whitney Frazier Watt for leadership roles. Spurlock will serve as the Membership Commit tee chair through July 2027 while Watt, who just finished her term as chair of the IADC Product Liability Committee, will chair the Continuing Legal Education Steering Committee for the 2026 Annual Meeting to be held in Prague, Czech Republic. IADC is an invitation-only, peer reviewed member organization comprised of the world’s leading corporate and defense attorneys and insurance executives. Spurlock is a member (partner) of Stites & Harbison based in the Louisville office. She is a member of the firm’s health care service group and is co-chair

and phi beta kappa , in 2012. Finke resides in Lexington with his wife, Dr. Ann Finke. At the same time, Andrew S. Hartley was recently appointed deputy chief of staff. Hartley brings nearly two decades of experience in local government law and administration, including six years with the governor’s office in the Department for Local Government. He also served as city attorney, chief of staff and chief administrative officer for the city of Georgetown. Most recently, he was the assistant city manager in Frankfort. He is a past president of the Municipal Attorneys Association of Kentucky and previously served on the board of directors of the Kentucky League of Cities and the education committee of the Kentucky City/County Management Association. He earned his J.D. from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky. He lives in Lexington with his daughter, Bryn, and enjoys writing, woodworking and night drives

of the firm’s privacy & data security group. She regularly advises clients on privacy and information security laws, including health information privacy regulations, and data breach prevention and response. Her practice includes regulatory and transactional matters and health care and data breach litigation. Spurlock served as chair of IADC’s Cyber Security, Data Privacy and Technology Committee from July 2020 to July 2022.Watt is a member (partner) of the firm also based in the Louisville office. She is a member of the firm’s torts and insurance practice service group and has a wide-ranging liti gation practice that includes product liability (consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices), toxic torts (asbestos, silica, chemicals and coal mine dust), mass actions, transportation, con struction and commercial disputes. Watt served as chair of IADC’s Product Liability Committee from July 2023 to July 2025, chair of the inaugural IADC Product Liability Roundtable held at Johnson & Johnson in 2024 and chair of IADC’s Empowerment Collaborative from July 2022 to July 2023. She is also a past chair of the ABA’s Women in Products Liability Committee.

with the windows down and music playing. The Kentucky Bar Association ’s Deputy Bar Counsel Heather Matics has been selected as a member of Leadership Lexington's Class of 2025 - 2026. Admission to the yearlong program, a training for emerging community leaders, was extremely competitive. After a two-day orienta tion in August, Matics wrote a reflection piece which will be published in Business Focus, Commerce Lexington's monthly magazine.

Jacob Eads joined Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC in 2025 as an associate in the business litigation practice in their Lexington office. He represents clients in a wide range of complex disputes, with experience spanning environmental litigation, construction law, and healthcare-related matters.

White and Williams LLP welcomes as partner Bonita K. Black . Black is a member of the corporate and securities practice group and resident in the New York, N.Y., office. For over 30 years, Black has

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