Award Honors Commitment to Diversity in the Legal Profession

The Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Department of Public Advocacy has named Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorney Doug Farnsley as the recipient of the 2016 Public Advocacy Award for his outstanding work to advance diversity in the legal profession. Farnsley will be presented the award on May 10, 2016.

The Public Advocate Award is a long-standing award created to recognize individuals who have earned a place of honor through dedication, service, sacrifice and commitment to fair process and individual liberties. The Department of Public Advocacy is an independent agency connected to the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. The department’s mission is to provide quality public defender service in each of Kentucky’s counties as well as Kentucky’s appellate courts.

Farnsley is a Member (Partner) of Stites & Harbison based in the Louisville, Ky., office. He focuses on civil trial work, including the defense of product liability claims and professional and hospital liability claims. He has over 30 years of trial experience, including more than 50 matters successfully tried to verdict. He is the President of the Kentucky Bar Association, where he previously served as President-Elect, Vice President and for six years as a member of its Board of Governors.

Highly respected among his peers, Farnsley has earned many legal accolades. In 2015, he received the highest honor for a Louisville Bar Association member, the Justice Martin E. Johnstone Special Recognition Award. Farnsley is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the International Society of Barristers. He has been named Louisville Area Product Liability Litigation Lawyer of the Year (2011) and Louisville Area Medical Malpractice lawyer of the Year (2010) by Best Lawyers in America®.

Outside of the firm, Farnsley is a passionate supporter of two historic sites associated with his family in southwestern Jefferson County – the Farnsley-Kaufman House and Riverside, the Farnsley-Moremen Landing. He is also is a member of the Advisory Board of Actors Theatre of Louisville.