Brad Cowgill began his appointment as interim president of the Council September 1, 2007. Prior to his appointment, he served as State Budget Director.
Brad Cowgill practiced law with Stites and Harbison, PLLC, where his practice was concentrated in corporate matters and commercial litigation, with emphasis on construction-related claims and clients. Mr. Cowgill’s leadership positions in the legal profession include his service as the 1990 chairman of the Annual Meeting of Kentucky Attorneys (held in Lexington) and his appointment by the Supreme Court of Kentucky as chairman of the Continuing Legal Education Commission. He is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry and has presented numerous lectures on construction-related topics.
Mr. Cowgill has long been interested in local business and civic matters. He served on the board of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and for several years as board member and general counsel to the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce. In recent years, Mr. Cowgill has chaired the boards of Saint Joseph Hospital, the United Way of the Bluegrass and the Lexington Community College. He earlier chaired the boards of the Lexington-Fayette Historic Commission and of the Lexington Transit Authority (LexTran) during a period of considerable innovation.
In 1993, Mr. Cowgill served by appointment of Mayor Pam Miller as Council Member-at-Large of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. In 1994, he founded and chaired the board of TEAM (Toward Efficiency in Administration and Management) Lexington, Inc., a nonprofit organization which conducted a nine-month study of the personnel policies and practices of the Urban County Government with the objective of identifying efficiency improvement measures.
In 1995, Mr. Cowgill founded and chaired the board of the New Century Lexington Partnership, a community-wide visioning and planning program undertaken by Lexington’s major organizations and institutions.
Mr. Cowgill has also long been interested in public education and has served on the Superintendent’s Advisory and Key Communicators Committees for the Fayette County Public Schools. In 1992-93, Mr. Cowgill co-authored ComPEL IV, a Chamber of Commerce study of Fayette County public school administration. In 1985, he served on the steering committee of the Task Force on Excellence in the Fayette County Schools. He has been active in the leadership of the Governor’s Scholars Program, Lexington United, the Better Business Bureau, the Bluegrass Council of the Boy Scouts, Bluegrass Tomorrow and the Greater Lexington YMCA. In 1984, Mr. Cowgill was recognized as "Lexington’s Outstanding Young Man." He is a graduate of Leadership Kentucky (1990) and Leadership Lexington (1980).
Mr. Cowgill received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he founded and served as editor of the law school newspaper ("Dicta") and was a member of the Moot Court Board. Upon graduation, he joined the Lexington law firm of Brown, Sledd and McCann, becoming a partner in 1982. In 1985, the firm merged with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs where Mr. Cowgill was a partner until 2002.