2015 Hall of Fame Inductee Carolyn S. Bratt Professor Emeritus

Professor Bratt is a magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, graduate of Syracuse University College of Law. Her undergraduate degree was earned at the State University of New York at Albany. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 1975, she clerked for the Presiding Justice of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division.

During her 33 years on faculty, Professor Bratt devoted her time to teaching, research, and writing in the areas of property, constitutional and anti-discrimination law. On two occasions, the law students recognized her with their Outstanding Teacher Award. She received the law school’s Duncan Award for her outstanding contribution to legal education. Professor Bratt was also the recipient of the University of Kentucky’s Great Teacher Award and the Cassis Award given by the law school for “excellence in legal research and scholarship.”

Professor Bratt served as a Special Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court and as an administrative law judge with the Kentucky Cabinet for Natural resources and Environmental Protection. She was also appointed to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and the Lexington Fayette Urban County Planning Commission.

Professor Bratt was appointed by Governor Martha Layne Collins to serve as chair of the Kentucky Governor’s Commission on Women. She co-chaired the American Bar Association’s Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender-Identity Discrimination and was a driving force behind the adoption of the Lexington-Fayette County’s Fairness Ordinance.

She was chosen to chair the Faculty Senate and to represent faculty as their trustee on the UK Board of Trustees. Professor Bratt served as the inaugural chair of the University of Kentucky President’s Commission on Women. The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights honored Professor Bratt as a “Tireless fighter for civil rights in general and women’s rights in particular” when she was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

Professor Bratt was the recipient of numerous civic and professional awards including the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award, Midway College’s Women’s History Month Award, Central Kentucky Civil Liberties Union Distinguished Service Award, and the University of Kentucky’s William Lyons Public Service Award. Most recently, she was honored by the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union by inclusion in its “Faces of Liberty” project celebrating their sixty years of defending liberty and pursuing justice in the Commonwealth.