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