2018 Hall of Fame Inductee Barbara B. Edelman Class of 1977

Barbara B. Edelman is a partner in the Lexington office of Dinsmore & Shohl.  She serves on the firm’s Board of Directors and its Executive Committee, and also heads the Litigation Department in the Lexington office.  She is a 1977 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law and in 1974 earned her B.B.A. degree with Honors from the College of Business. 

She began her legal career in the Special Prosecutions Division of the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office.  She also served as Director of Litigation for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Barbara was appointed to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of KY where she prosecuted federal court cases and handled many high-profile cases involving white collar crime, murder for hire and public corruption. 

In 1987, she entered private practice and established herself as one of the premiere commercial litigators in Kentucky.  Barbara is listed in Best Lawyers Appellate Law, Bet the Company, and Commercial Litigation. She is listed in Kentucky’s Super Lawyers; Kentucky’s Super Lawyers Top 25 Women; Kentucky’s Super Lawyers Top 50 Lawyers in the State; Benchmark Litigation as a “Local Litigation Star”; and Top 250 Women in Litigation in the Nation.

She is the 2012 recipient of the Fayette County Bar Association’s highest honor, the Henry T. Duncan Award. She is also a past President of the Fayette County Women Lawyers Association and the University of Kentucky College of Law Alumni Association.

Edelman has tried more than 50 cases in state and federal courts and has argued more than 35 cases to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Kentucky Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District.