Doug Kemper focuses his practice on trial advocacy and defense of tort liability, including personal injury, premises liability, professional liability, insurance coverage and bad faith, investigation of insurance fraud, and analysis of contractual and coverage issues in liability, casualty, commercial and property policies. He has litigated liability and coverage issues in state and federal appellate courts as well. In addition, Doug has advised Fortune 500 companies on criminal law and procedure issues arising in the workplace, and has litigated noncompete agreements from both sides.
Doug also practices in the Long-Term Care/Nursing Home Defense area, where he has represented long-term care facilities in litigation involving a broad array of claims, including medical negligence, staffing issues, resident abuse, fraudulent charting and violations of patient rights. He also deals regularly with HIPAA compliance issues and enforcement of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) agreements, which he has litigated in appellate courts.
Doug began his career as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and served as lead counsel on nearly 100 trials, including four capital murder cases, and prepared an extensive array of cases for grand jury presentation. He then moved into civil litigation, where his trial advocacy resulted in numerous defense verdicts in areas of personal injury, premises liability and insurance contract claims. He also defended trial wins and cases won on motion practice before appellate courts.
Doug served as a judge in Jefferson Circuit Court, where he presided over felony criminal cases and a wide variety of civil litigation. In 2006, he presided over two murder cases involving application of the Commonwealth’s newly enacted Castle Doctrine self-defense law, and the procedure he devised for applying the new law was adopted by the Kentucky Supreme Court with only a slight modification, and established the precedent for trial courts in Kentucky to follow. Doug’s experience also includes serving in Washington, D.C. as a Presidential Management Fellow, where he worked as an auditor for U.S. Government Accountability Office and as a budget analyst at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Doug was a paralegal instructor at Bellarmine University from 1998–2000.
View Doug's exemplar trial experience.