Hughes & Coleman Injury Lawyers

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  Lee Coleman

  Founding Partner

  Mr. Coleman is now the Managing Partner and majority owner of Hughes and Coleman Injury Lawyers, a firm he cofounded in 1985 with J. Marshall Hughes. The firm has grown during its 37 years, and currently has 30 attorneys and 10 offices in Kentucky and Tennessee, and an affiliated firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lee is proud that two of his sons, Benjamin and Andrew, are attorneys practicing with H&C. Lee earned his Law Degree from the University of Louisville, graduating in 1981, and earned his undergraduate Business Administration degree from the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1978. During the first two years of his career Lee was a Prosecutor with the Warren County Attorney’s office in Bowling Green, Kentucky, representing the Commonwealth of Kentucky in Criminal, Traffic, and Juvenile cases. As a Prosecutor Lee tried approximately 50 jury trials, gaining valuable courtroom and trial experience while going up against well prepared and tenacious defense attorneys. With the experience gained as a Prosecutor, Lee was ready to move into private practice, working for one year as an Associate Attorney for Gary Logsdon, a savvy veteran attorney, before starting his own law firm in 1984. While working for Mr. Logsdon, Lee worked on Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases for consumers who could not pay their bills. Lee found that most of these clients were hard-working people just down on their luck, often because they had lost their job or had huge medical bills. Lee built on this experience, and in the process became the first local attorney to use paid legal advertisements to attract new clients. Lee ran classified ads in the local newspapers, offering to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases for a low flat rate. His clients hired him because it was a fair offer, and they needed help. In 1985 Lee and Mr. Hughes started Hughes & Coleman, and Lee began representing injury victims. Lee found that the clients who hired H&C needed help, and that he enjoyed helping them. Most of his clients were workers injured in a wreck or on the job. During those early years, Lee was the lead attorney in charge of the H&C courtroom work, including trying at least 20 cases to a Jury Verdict. Today H&C aggressively pursues maximum compensation for each of their thousands of injured clients. In today’s world TV lawyer ads are accepted, but in the 1980’s most lawyers considered TV ads distasteful and unprofessional. In 1987, when H&C first ran TV ads on local TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky, they were the first local law firm to do so. As an Injury Law Firm H&C faced opposition from the Kentucky Bar Association which ruled that H&C’s TV ads could not use the phrase “Injury Lawyers.” Mr. Coleman believed the decision to be unconstitutional and directed the firm’s Appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which in 2001 unanimously ruled that the use of “Injury Lawyers” was proper. Mr. Coleman’s efforts and accomplishments have been widely recognized, including being named as a Kentucky Super Lawyer in Personal Injury since 2012, and being awarded an AV Rating, the highest rating given, by the nation’s preeminent Attorney Rating service, Martindale- Hubbell®. Since the 1990’s Lee has presided over the M&L Legal Marketing and Management, a seminar attended by Personal Injury law firms, helping him develop close ties with successful injury lawyers across the country. Outside of H&C Lee stays active through travel with his wife and family, playing golf, bicycling, and snow skiing. Lee’s wife of 41 years is Warren District Court Judge, the Hon. JoAnn Spinks Coleman, retired. In addition to Ben and Andy, their third son Johnathan is a physician in Chicago. Lee and JoAnn have six grandchildren.

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  Link: Lee Coleman