David Allen Barber was a justice of the

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court o ...

from March 23, 2015, to December 2015 for the 7th district. He obtained a degree in communication in 1960 from

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, followed by a masters is speech communication in 1991 from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

, then he obtained his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

in 1994 from the

University of Louisville School of Law The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, commonly referred to as The University of Louisville School of Law, U of L Brandeis School of Law, or the Brandeis School of Law, is the law school of the University of Louisville. E ...

. Barber was admitted to the

Kentucky Bar Association The Kentucky Bar Association (KBA) is the integrated (mandatory) bar association of the U.S. state of Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and o ...

on the May 7, 1981. He served from 2000 until 2007 on the

Kentucky Court of Appeals The Kentucky Court of Appeals is the lower of Kentucky's two appellate courts, under the Kentucky Supreme Court. Prior to a 1975 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The ...

court for the 7th district, and had also worked as an attorney in both public and private practice. He obtained his

degree from the

. Barber was appointed by Kentucky governor

Steve Beshear Steven Lynn Beshear (born September 21, 1944) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state's 44th atto ...

to fill the vacant seat that the resignation of

Will T. Scott William Thompson Scott (born July 20, 1947) is an American jurist who is a former Associate Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He was elected in November 2004 to represent the 7th Supreme Court District, which consists of 22 counties in Easter ...

had left. The position was only until elections in November of the same year, when

Samuel T. Wright III Samuel T. Wright III (born 1955) is a former Associate Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He was elected to the Supreme Court in November 2015, and lost re-election in 2020. Early life Wright was born and raised in Letcher County, Kentucky. ...

won the position, Barber did not run. Prior to the appointment he had been working as policy and legal advisor to

Greg Stumbo Gregory D. Stumbo (born August 14, 1951) is an American lawyer and former Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Kentucky Attorney general from 2004 to 2008. He was the Democratic candidate ...

. In 2018 he ran for the

but was defeated by Larry E. Thompson who gained 53.9% of the vote. In 2020 governor

Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of the 61st governor of Kentucky, Steve Be ...

appointed Barber to be circuit judge for the 21st Judicial Circuit, Division 2, of Kentucky.

References

Justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court University of Louisville School of Law alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Kentucky-state-judge-stub