19 www.loubar.org December 2024 Members on the move O’Bryan, Brown & Toner is pleased to welcome Kenneth Decker and Stephen Hillenmeyer to its Louisville office. Decker focuses his practice on matters of insurance defense litigation with an emphasis on medical malpractice cases. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. While in law school, Decker served as an Articles Editor of the Kentucky Law Journal and was a member of the Moot Court Board. Hil- lenmeyer focuses his practice on matters involving insurance defense litigation. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. While in law school, he served on the Student Bar Associa- tion and was a published member of the Journal of Animal and Environmental Law. Louisville attorney Rachel Dalton Dearmond, of the law firm O’Bryan, Brown & Toner, has been selected as an Associate Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. Dearmond is a litigator focusing on insurance defense. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. Dearmond is a Part- ner in the firm and has substantial experience defending professional liability, with a dedicated focus in medical and nursing defense, and motor vehicle liability claims through trial, formal mediation and settlement negotiations in both Kentucky and Indiana. The Litigation Counsel of America is a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. Kentucky ElderLaw welcomes newly licensed attorney Mor- gan LaRosa to their team. LaRosa, who was a law clerk with the firm, will focus on estate planning, asset preservation and long-term care planning. LaRosa graduated cum laude from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, where she received the CALI Award for Upper Level Writing and Research. During law school, LaRosa served as the secretary for the Business Law Society and Christian Legal Society and worked at the Trager-Brandeis Elder Law Clinic. She will work in the firm’s Louisville and Bowling Green offices. Stites & Harbison announces the addition of four attorneys to the Louisville office: Rachel Gumbel, Jackson B. Hurst- Sanders, James E. Myers and April M. J. Sain. Gumbel is a member of the firm’s Business Litigation Service Group. She earned her J.D. from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, summa cum laude, in 2024. Hurst-Sanders is a member of the Business Litigation Service Group. He earned his J.D. from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif, in 2023. Myers is a member of the Business & Finance Service Group. He earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2024 and completed the Law & Business Program. Sain is a member of the Business Litigation Service Group. She earned her J.D. from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, magna cum laude, in 2021. Fultz Maddox Dickens is pleased to announce that Robert E. Ranney has joined the firm as a commercial and healthcare litigation attorney. Prior to joining the firm, Ranney clerked for two federal judges, Hon. Charles R. Simpson, III and Hon. Edward B. Atkins. Ranney is experienced in complex administrative and constitutional law litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels. He is licensed to practice law in Kentucky, where he represents plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of business, healthcare and contract disputes. Ranney received his J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. n Dearmond Decker Gumbel Hillenmeyer Hurst-Sanders LaRosa Myers Ranney Sain In Memoriam Dr. George Riley Nichols II, 77, a forensic pathologist and Kentucky’s first Chief Medical Examiner, died on November 20. In 1968, he graduated with honors and a BA in his- tory from the University of Louisville. He then entered the University of Louisville Medical School where he chose pathology as his specialty. While getting ad- ditional training as a deputy coroner for Hamilton County in Cincinnati, Nichols took part in some Kentucky investigations. On July 1, 1977, Nichols was appointed as Kentucky’s first Chief Medical Examiner. His job was to bring professional standards and procedures to a state where death examinations were performed by elected coroners who were often funeral directors with little or no medical training. Nichols led a suc- cessful effort to require coroners to receive annual training by certified medical examiners. He also worked to expand the state’s medical examiner program. By the time he retired in 1997 the state had facilities in four cities and nine medical examiners who performed more than 2,000 autopsies a year. During his 20 years in the office, Nichols said he personally performed an estimated 10,000 autopsies. He also testified in some of Kentucky’s most notable criminal cases. After leav- ing the medical examiner’s office, Nichols started a medical legal consulting firm where he worked for 28 years. During his career, he testified in state and federal courts in 25 states. Nichols held faculty appointments at the UofL School of Medicine from 1972-2006, last as Clinical Professor. Nichols was an accomplished cook who passed along his knowledge to his three sons. He disdained golf, preferring to find joy in boating, skiing, scuba diving, gardening, taking his dog to farmer’s markets, spending a day at the races or sipping a fine bourbon, neat. Photo courtesy of the Commonwealth Medical Legal Services, Inc. n
