Robert W. "Joe" Bishop
Robert W. "Joe" Bishop, the president and founder of Bishop Friend, P.S.C., has focused his practice in recent years on employment law, contracts, and class action litigation. The firm has worked on numerous employment cases and class actions, including antitrust, securities, personal injury, products liability, consumer protection, ERISA, wage and hour, and civil rights cases. Mr. Bishop is a Life Member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He also has been annually selected repeatedly to the Kentucky Super Lawyers List.
Mr. Bishop was born in Atlanta, Georgia, into a military family originally from Kentucky. He traveled with his family to U.S. bases in the Philippines and England, before returning to the Washington, D.C. area, where Joe graduated from high school in Arlington, Virginia. He attended Duke University, the National Law Center at George Washington University, and the University of Kentucky, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from the College of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.
He began practicing law in 1976 at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland, Ohio. Joe returned to Kentucky in 1980 to work on an antitrust case in which his firm were lead counsel for the governmental entities. Mr. Bishop was Chairman of the Federal Practice Section of the Louisville Bar Association. He has been lead counsel in many noteworthy cases, with verdicts, judgments, and settlements on behalf of joined plaintiffs, individual plaintiffs, and both opt-in and opt-out plaintiffs in class actions.
Joe Bishop is admitted to practice in U.S. District Courts in Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas, the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the Kentucky and Louisville bar associations, and has been active in the city as a coach, and as a board member of the Louisville Central Community Centers. His enjoyment of watching, playing, and coaching soccer led Mr. Bishop to become one of the original founders and owners of the Louisville Thunder Professional Indoor Soccer Team.
Education
University of Kentucky College of Law: J.D.
George Washington University National Law Center, Wash., D.C.
University of Kentucky: B.A., High Distinction; Dean’s List; Phi Beta Kappa
Duke University: Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity; Letter in Soccer
Yorktown High School, Arlington, Va.: Letters in various sports; National Honor Society; Captain Tennis Team
Wallop Boys’ School, Surrey, England
Professional & Civic Memberships
Kentucky Bar Association
Louisville Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
Past Chairman, Federal Practice Section, Louisville Bar Association
Former Board Member, Louisville Central Community Centers, Inc.
Founder, Owner, and Director, Louisville Thunder Professional Indoor Soccer Team
Officer and Director, Greater Louisville Soccer League
Honors & Awards
Life Member of Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum
Kentucky Super Lawyers List
Order of the Coif
Phi Beta Kappa
Who’s Who in America Who’s Who in American Law Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement
Court Admissions
Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th Circuits
U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
Commonwealth of Kentucky
John S. Friend
John Friend is a director and shareholder of Bishop Friend, P.S.C. John's practice is split between class actions and employment law. In his class action work, John has litigated on behalf of individual consumers in consumer protection actions and small businesses seeking redress for a multi-state contract breaches. John has also litigated classes on behalf of employees who were not paid full wages pursuant to law, employees who were subjected to systematic civil rights violations, and employees who were exposed to dangerous working conditions.
John has litigated on behalf of individual employees for civil rights violations, wrongful terminations, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, discrimination, retaliation, and wage and hour law violations.
John has also protected the rights of consumers who were being harassed by debt collectors, consumers who were defrauded by car dealerships, and consumers who were being illegally auto-dialed.
In early 2015 John became a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum for serving as co-lead class counsel in a race discrimination case. John and his law partner, Joe Bishop, secured a settlement for the class in excess of one million dollars.
Education
J.D., Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, cum laude, 2012
BA, Anthropology - University of Kentucky, 2009
John graduated Cum Laude from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. While in law school, John taught constitutional law in the Law and Government Magnet program at Central High School, worked as a clerk for the Hon. McKay Chauvin, and externed for the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.
Personal
John is a proud native of Pike County, and has strong Eastern Kentucky roots. John's family also has a strong tradition of advocating for Kentucky's citizens in courts of law; John followed his mother, brother, and several cousins into the practice of law.
When he isn't working, John enjoys weightlifting, kickboxing, and is always up to play pickup basketball.