Bardenwerper, Talbott, & Roberts PLLC, Attorneys

William B. (Bill) Bardenwerper, listed in Best Lawyers in America, has also received the top ranking of Chambers USA and is “AV” rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He received these distinctions from a practice beginning in 1978 as Jefferson County’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and as special counsel to the County Executive (now U.S. Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell. In 1984, he joined a large "downtown" law firm and in 1987 became managing partner of a firm bearing his name, today Bardenwerper, Talbott & Roberts, PLLC. He has always primarily practiced real estate development law, for the past 20+ years at the law office he established in east Louisville.

Bill is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Louisville Law School where he served as President of the Student Bar Association, as Editor-in-Chief of the Louisville Law Examiner and as Director of the Louisville Law Forum.

Specifically, as respects Bill's and his firm's principal practice areas today, over the years Bill has served on or as chairman of numerous special committees and task forces dealing with the local development process. Most recently, during the 10-year process of developing the new Cornerstone 2020 Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Land Development Code, Bill served as Chairman of both the Cornerstone 2020 Marketplace Committee and the Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce 2020 Advisory Committee and as a member of the 2020 Policy and Technical Coordinating Committees. Perhaps most significantly, he served as one of two development industry representatives on the special 2020 Drafting Committee charged with producing the new Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code for the new Louisville and Jefferson County Metro Government. Bill also recently served on the County Attorney’s “Consolidated Local Government Legal Task Force” and as Chairman of its Land Use Subcommittee and also on the Special Task Force of Metro Government, transportation and development interests charged with developing a new transportation systems development fee ordinance for Greater Louisville, a funding mechanism for the improvement of rural roads. Bill also helped develop the new system for “Recapture” of excess sanitary sewer service costs when developers are charged by MSD with improving a sanitary sewer system for an entire watershed beyond a development’s specific sanitary sewer service needs.

For 5 years, Bill served on the Executive Committee of the Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce (now "Greater Louisville, Inc." or "GLI") with specific responsibility for overseeing its land use, transportation, environmental and governmental affairs programs. For a number of years, Bill also served on the Board of Directors of the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency.

Bill is active in the Home Builders Association of Louisville, serving on its Land Development Committee, as Chairman of its Land Development Code Review Committee and for many years on its Board of Directors. In 1995 and 2002, he was recognized as the Home Builders “Associate (non-builder) of the Year.” Bill has also served as an adjunct faculty member teaching land use law to graduate students in the Department of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville, has lectured widely on land use and development law issues and is the general editor of four volumes of law books (Kentucky Methods of Practice) published by the nation’s leading law publisher, West Publishing Company, including a volume (which he authored) on Kentucky land use and zoning law. Bill served as Chairman of the Louisville Bar Association’s Real Estate and Zoning Section, as Co-Chair of its CLE Institute and as Editor-in-Chief of its Louisville Lawyer magazine.

Until 2003, Bill served for 9 years as Mayor of the suburban Louisville city of Hurstbourne.

Bill's other professional and community recognitions and involvements, in addition to the above, over the years have included the following: various recognitions for service to the Louisville Bar Association, University of Louisville, Chamber of Commerce and local governments; President of the Hurstbourne Rotary Club; founder and Board Member of Kentuckiana Crime Stoppers, Inc.; Finance Committee Chairman and Board Member of Wesley Community House; Chairman of the Board of the Louisville Gardens Arena Operating Company; Consultant to the American Bar Association; and St. Matthews Little League coach.

Ben J. Talbott, Jr has been a member of the Kentucky Bar Association since 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Xavier University and a 1964 graduate of Harvard Law School. Upon graduation from law school. Ben clerked for U.S. District Judge Henry L. Brooks, Western District of Kentucky at Louisville. In 1965, he joined Middleton, Seelbach, Wolford, Willis, & Cochran where he made partner in 1968. After leaving that firm in 1980, Ben founded Westfall, Talbott, & Woods. Following Mr. Westfall's retirement from that firm on December 31, 1999, Ben re-established the firm as Talbott & Talbott, PLLC, which later merged into Bardenwerper and Talbott, PLLC. Ben's practice principally includes commercial litigation, including fraud cases, contract cases, mortgage foreclosures, and general corporate work.

Ben practices before both state and federal courts. He is a member of the American , Kentucky, and Louisville Bar Associations, the Defense Research Institute, the Association of the Trial Lawyers of American and the Supreme Court Historical Society. He has been named as one the best lawyers in America in Who's Who in American Law, America's Registry of Outstanding Registry of Outstanding Professionals, and the recent Editions of Martindale-Hubbell's Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Since 1989, Ben has served as President of the Harvard Alumni Association of Kentucky.

Alex F. Talbott is a native Louisvillian who has been practicing Land Use Law throughout Kentucky, but primarily in Jefferson County, for 30 years.
Alex began concentrating in Land Use Law in Jefferson County representing the Louisville and Jefferson County Planning Commission. He held that position for twelve years, when he began representing developers and property owners in their dealings with local government regulators.

Alex articulated his philosophy about land development in Jefferson County as follows:

"I want my community to be a place where my children and grandchildren want to remain or come to and where the children of many others want to remain or come to. I believe the primary factor in creating such a community is to provide a place where there is economic opportunity for a broad spectrum of incomes, educational ability and lifestyle aspirations. The history of America convinces me that economic vibrancy is fostered best and most enduringly by a relatively free economic system in which capital investments are made on the hope of success but with the possibility of failure--where both the investor and others learn from the experience and adjust accordingly. In land development some regulation is necessary because when failures occur their efforts usually last a long time.

However, government regulation has gone overboard. In my thirty years of experience, zoning regulations have increased from a document of little over fifty pages to more than nine hundred pages, and those nine hundred pages are only a fraction of the laws that a property owner must be concerned with. The fear of development failures has created a 'not in my backyard' attitude which has virtually taken over the political system, significantly impeding the achievement of a vibrant local economy that is attractive to young people."

Alex obtained his law degree at the University of Louisville. He was a liberal arts Economics major at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and attended Trinity High School here in Louisville. Like his partners, Alex has been a frequent instructor at continuing legal education seminars. He stays abreast of problems of land developers by attending Land Development Regulation Committee meetings of the Louisville Home Builders Association in addition to hearing those problems from his individual clients. In addition to being a member of the Kentucky Bar Association, he is also a member of the Louisville Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Alex regularly serves as a member of the Codes Committee of the Home Builders Association of Louisville as he has for nearly seventeen years. In the past, he has also served as a member of the Transportation Committee for the Governor’s Task Force on Smart Growth, the Mobility Committee for Cornerstone 2020 and the Mobile Source Committee of the Air Pollution Control District’s State Implementation Plan Advisory Committee.

In past years Alex has also served on the Legislative Committee of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Planning Association, and for many years he was a member of the American Planning Association.

J. Bissell Roberts joined the firm in April 2005. He previously practiced (since 1971) as a partner with one of Louisville's largest firms. He specializes in land use law, zoning eminent domain, commercial litigation, and family law. He was a member of the Honors Program at the University of Kentucky, where he obtained a degree in economics. In 1971 he graduated from the University of Virginia Law School, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Law Weekly  Bissell has over thirty five years experience as a trial lawyer, trying cases in state and federal courts across Kentucky and practicing before the Kentucky Supreme Court, the Sixth and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeal, the United States Tax Court and the United States Supreme Court.  He has represented developers, small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, automobile dealers, seminaries, fire departments, cemeteries, public utilities and county governments in land use matters.  He was legal counsel for Jefferson County’s first cable television company, the Regional Airport Authority (in acquiring major commercial properties for the recent expansion of Louisville’s Airport) and clients, large and small, in contract, divorce, employment, personal injury, and professional malpractice cases.

In 2008, Bissell was recognized by his legal peers and Louisville Magazine as one of Louisville's "Top Lawyers." In 2003 Bissell completed the “CIVIL MEDIATION TRAINING” course conducted by Kentucky’s Administrative Office of the Courts. He has over thirty five years experience in representing clients in mediation and arbitration.  Bissell is now available to serve as a private mediator and private arbitrator.

Bissell is the Co-Founder of the Louisville Bar Association’s “Young Lawyers Section”, a former City Police Court Judge and in 1997 was appointed Special Justice to the Kentucky Supreme Court.  He authored the case of Commonwealth v. Stallard, Ky., 958 S.W.2d 21 (1998).  Bissell has written and lectured extensively.  He is the author of the Kentucky Rules of Evidence (1996), and a contributing author to Kentucky Business Guide; Builder/Architect Magazine, and The National Business Institute.

Bissell is a frequent lecturer for the National Business Institute, making recent presentations on “Land Use Law and Planning”, “Eminent Domain in Kentucky”, “Current Issues of Subdivision and Zoning Law” (see available Firm Articles).  In January 2003, Bissell organized and helped present a seminar on “Zoning and Land Use” for the newly elected Louisville Metro Council members and their staff.  He presented topics on dealing with the Planning Commission, suggested procedures for Metro Council members in zoning cases and the rules for quorum and voting in zoning cases. 

Bissell is an active member of the U K and U VA Alumni Associations.  He is a graduate of the 2000 class of “Leadership Oldham County”.  In 1971 he founded of the Commonwealth Athletic Club, which presents the Adolph Rupp Trophy to the “National Player of the Year” in men’s college basketball.

John C. Talbott has practiced law for 10 years, largely in the areas of commercial transactions and real estate, as well as in commercial/civil litigation on behalf of employers and insurers since he was admitted to the Bar in 1994. He began his career working for several years with one of the largest firms in Kentucky before leaving to start his own firm, Talbott & Talbott, PLLC in 2000. He joined our present firm in 2004. John received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and his law degree from the University of Louisville. While in law school, he was an editor of the "Journal of Law and Education" and also clerked for the Kentucky Department of Labor. He has practiced before both state and federal courts, and extensively before state administrative agencies for workers' compensation.

* * * *

•Nanci Dively has served as a legal professional since 2001 after graduating Cum Laude from Sullivan University with a degree in Paralegal Studies. She has been a Land Use and Zoning Paralegal since 2005 and joined the firm in 2007.

•Anna Curley has served as a legal assistant since 1990 and now concentrates her practice in the areas of zoning and land use law, specializing in condominium regimes and homeowner associations.