Joseph E. Conley, Jr:
Joe practices in the area of commercial and business litigation. As a trial and appellate lawyer for over 30 years, he has been the lead counsel for clients in major pharmaceutical birth defect litigation and medical device litigation, employment discrimination claims arising from plant downsizings, broker-dealer litigation arising from securities claims (on behalf of customers and brokers), fiduciary claims between trustees and trust beneficiaries, will contests, business and partnership dissolutions, bankruptcy litigation, shareholder derivative actions, and construction disputes, where he has represented owners, architects, and engineers.
In addition, he also has extensive experience in multi-district and class litigation, on trial teams both supporting and opposing classes. That remains one of his principal research and teaching interests. He has published articles in the Louisiana Law Review (on Antitrust and Bankruptcy) and is the co-editor of a manual for Kentucky trial lawyers (Kentucky Practice After Trial) and the author of a chapter in that manual on claim and issue preclusion.
He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a 1977 graduate of the University of Kentucky Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, Articles Editor of the Kentucky Law Journal, and a member of the National Moot Court Team. From 1980 to 1981 he was a teaching fellow and L.L.M. candidate at the University of Illinios Law School. From 1981 to 1983 he was a member of the faculty of the Louisiana State University Law Center, where he taught classes in Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Antitrust, and Corporation Law and Corporate Finance. He continues to teach as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati Law School where he teaches a course in Complex Litigation and Advanced Civil Procedure.
Joe has been trial counsel in cases in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, and California, and written briefs in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third, Fifth and Sixth Circuits, and in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Courts of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and California. He has argued in the Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California Courts of Appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court, and the Third and Sixth Circuits of the United States Court of Appeals.
He has participated in the following reported cases: Parchman & Oyler v. Crawford, 68 Ohio App. 2d 109 (1980) (dual agency); Fischer v. Heckerman, 772 S.W.2d 642 (Ky. App. 1989) (will contest); Hagen v. Richardson-Merrell, 697 F.Supp. 334 (N.D. Ill 1988 (products liability - summary judgment practice); Foiles v. Richardson-Merrell Nat., 730 F. Supp. 108 (N.D. Ill. 1989) (removal jurisdiction); Bernhardt v. Richardson-Merrell, 892 F.2d 440 (5th Cir. 1990)(products liability - summary of judgment practice); Gadsen v. Newman, 807 F.Supp. 1412 (C.D. Ill 1992) (consumer fraud); Blair v. General Motors, 838 F.Supp. 1196 (W.D.Ky. 1993) (auto dealer termination); Caro v. Procter & Gamble Co., 22 Cal.Rptr.2d 419 (Cal.App. 4th Dist. 1993) (consumer class certification); Blum v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 560 A.2d 212 (Pa Super. 1989) (drug product liability); Procter & Gamble v. Staples, 551 So.2d 949 (Ala. 1989) (product liability); Turpin v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 736 F.Supp. 737 (E.D.Ky. 1990) (drug product liability); Pennington v. Western Atlas, 202 F.3d 902 (6th Cir. 2000) (age and ERISA discrimination); Wilder v. Absorption, 107 S.W.3d 181 (Ky. 2003) (choice of forum clauses); Davis v. Fischer, 231 S.W. 3d 767 (Ky. App. 2007) (products liability - construction).
He has been active in several professional organizations over the years, and has been chairman of the Section of Litigation of the Kentucky Bar Association and President of the Kentucky Defense Counsel. He is a member of the American Law and Economics Association and the American Judicature Society. Send an email
