UPIKE’s Judicial Speakers Series to feature discussion on bail, pre-trial release

Law professor and former defense attorney William H. Fortune will be the featured speaker for the University of Pikeville’s Judicial Speakers Series. The event, sponsored by the Kentucky Bar Foundation, will be held Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 11 a.m. in Chrisman Auditorium, Armington Learning Center. Fortune will lead a discussion on bail and pre-trial release. 

Fortune, a 1964 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, spent five years in private practice before beginning a long career at the UK College of Law in 1969. He retired in 2012 and now teaches Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Professional Responsibility as an adjunct at the college of law.

On three occasions he took leaves from the law school to be a public defender – 1975-76 in the federal court in Los Angeles, 1977-78 in the federal court in Lexington and 1992-93 in the state court in Pikeville. He has taken pro bono cases throughout his career.

Active in bar work throughout his career, Fortune has been a frequent lecturer on issues of legal ethics for the UK College of Law, the Kentucky Bar Association (KBA) and the Fayette County Bar Association. For his service to the profession he has been honored as follows:

  • 2008: the KBA Thomas Spain award for his contribution to continuing legal education
  • 2009: the Chief Justice’s Special Service Award for work on the Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct
  • 2012: the UK College of Law Hall of Fame
  • 2014: the Henry T. Duncan Award lifetime achievement award of the Fayette County Bar Association
  • 2015: the KBA Young Lawyers Service Award

In addition to journal articles, Fortune’s publications and collaborations include On the Bench, a history of the federal court in the Eastern District of Kentucky; Call Me Mac, a biography of Judge Mac Swinford; Modern Litigation and Professional Responsibility Handbook; Psychology and the Legal System; and Kentucky Criminal Law.