Public Advocate Ernie W. Lewis

Ernie Lewis was first named Kentucky Public Advocate in 1996, and has been reappointed by every subsequent administration. 

He has served on numerous boards and task forces, including the Governor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault; the Department of Juvenile Justice Advisory Board; the Board of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and the Board of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund.  In addition, he has served on the Governor’s Criminal Justice Response Team; the Kentucky Criminal Justice Council; the Kentucky Corrections Commission; the Chair of the Corrections/Committee Based Sanctions Committee of the Criminal Justice Council; and the Governor’s Drug Summit. He also served on the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Healing and the Law in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 2003-2006. 

Ernie received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University in 1969, a Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt University in 1973, and a Juris Doctoris (J.D.) from Washington University in 1977.  He has been with the Department of Public Advocacy since he was admitted to the bar in 1977 in several different capacities, including appellate lawyer, local assistance branch manager, directing attorney of the Richmond Trial Office, and Regional Manager for the Central Kentucky Region.

Since 1985, he has been on the faculty of the National College of Criminal Defense located at Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia.  He is on the faculty of the National Defender Leadership Institute as well as the NLADA’s Nuts and Bolts of Defender Leadership.  He  served for two years as Chair of the American Council of Chief Defenders during 2006-2007.

He has testified on indigent defense issues before Task Forces in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Louisiana.  In 2000, he was named Outstanding Lawyer by the Kentucky Bar Association.   In 2007, he was given the Champion of Indigent Defense Award by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  

Ernie grew up in Missouri, the son of a Baptist minister and a school teacher.  He has  a son, Ben,  who is  currently  a public defender with the Charleston Public Defender's Office in Charleston, South Carolina.  He also has a daughter, Rachel, who has attended Kenyon College, the University of Chicago, spent a year as an Americorps volunteer, and now lives in Lexington and takes courses at the University of Kentucky.  He resides in Frankfort, Kentucky.