Democratic AG candidate not licensed to practice law in KY, but campaign says she will be soon
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Wednesday, July 27, to reflect that, according to new information provided by Rep. Pam Stevenson’s campaign for attorney general, Stevenson scored a 98 out of 150 on a legal ethics exam instead of a 98 out of 100, which the campaign had previously told the Herald-Leader. 98 is still a passing score.
Democratic nominee for attorney general, Rep. Pam Stevenson of Louisville, is not currently licensed to practice law in the state of Kentucky.
Her campaign, however, insists that Stevenson is on track to being admitted by the Kentucky Bar Association by August, and was not previously a member because her long career as a litigator in the U.S. Air Force led her to focus on matters of national and international importance.
Stevenson’s legal work since she retired from the Air Force has been just across the Ohio River from Louisville in Clarksville, where she is licensed by the Indiana State Bar Association, according to court records. She has also taught at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.
The Indiana bar shows Stevenson is in good standing and has been licensed in the Hoosier State since 1984.
According to the Stevenson campaign, she has been licensed in Indiana but not Kentucky because the Kentucky Bar Association requires a separate ethics test to become a member. Indiana’s bar admission requirements did not include such a test when Stevenson, a Louisville native, graduated from the Indiana University School of Law in 1984.
Stevenson recently took the ethics test and passed it with a score of 98 out of 150 — the threshold to pass in Kentucky is 80 and the national average is around 95, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Based on the result, Stevenson is on track to become a member of that state bar by August, according to the campaign.
In a statement, Stevenson’s campaign manager Ashley Wolfeser pushed back against Republicans attempting to frame Stevenson’s lack of a Kentucky bar license in a negative light.
“Colonel Stevenson, who practiced law in the Air Force for 27 years, is extremely qualified to be Kentucky’s next Attorney General. It’s pretty ironic that Kentucky Republican operatives have been pushing this story when Daniel Cameron had almost zero experience before he became AG. As we like to say – that dog won’t hunt,” Wolsefer said.
According to her website, Stevenson’s Air Force JAG — judge advocate general — career spanned four continents and saw her involvement in civil and criminal cases, as both defense and prosecution.
“With 39 years of legal experience at the local, state, federal, and international levels, Colonel Pam is one of the most qualified candidates ever to seek the office of Attorney General,” her website says.
Being a member of the Kentucky Bar Association is not a prerequisite for becoming Kentucky’s attorney general. The only requirement, according to the Kentucky Constitution, is that one “shall have been a practicing lawyer eight years before his (or her) election.”
If Stevenson were to be elected attorney general without becoming a member of the Kentucky Bar Association, she would have to file a motion — subject to approval by a judge — to appear in a case that her office would be arguing. It’s unclear how frequently current attorney general Daniel Cameron has himself appeared before a judge in Kentucky, if at all, in his official capacity; his office has yet to respond to a request on that score.
Bill Graham, former chief judge of Franklin Circuit Court, which often handles lawsuits over state government actions, said he thought Stevenson not being a member of the Kentucky bar yet was not a matter of great importance given that she is on track to be admitted soon.
“It’s generally uncommon for attorneys general to appear in court, but they should be able to. Truthfully, though, it sounds like this is something that will be taken care of in a matter of weeks,” Graham said.
The Republican Party of Kentucky, in a statement through spokesperson Sean Southard, skewered Stevenson for not currently being licensed to practice law in Kentucky, saying her campaign is “making a mockery of Kentucky’s legal system.”
“Pamela Stevenson is running around Kentucky saying she will be the ‘People’s Lawyer.’ She left out the ‘people’ she’s talking about will have to live in Indiana... She is the most unqualified candidate to ever run for this office,” Southard said.
GOP nominee Russell Coleman, a partner at prominent Louisville firm Frost Brown Todd, has been a member of the Kentucky Bar Association since 2004. Coleman was previously the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, having been appointed by former president Donald Trump in 2017.
Coleman’s campaign, through spokesperson Kevin Grout, released a statement following the initial publication of this report echoing the concerns voiced by Southard.
“(Gov.) Andy Beshear and his hand-picked attorney general nominee tried to hide the truth, and Kentuckians deserve better,” Grout said. “Russell Coleman is the only candidate ready to protect our families as attorney general on day one. His opponent could still be filling out paperwork just to get a law license.”
Stevenson was first elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2020. Recently, some of her speeches on the House floor against GOP-sponsored bills — namely Senate Bill 150, which Democrats argued was one of the most ‘anti-trans’ bills in the country — have gone viral.
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 1:31 PM.
