Blankenship, Mark O.

Mr. Blandford joined the Lexington law firm of McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie and Kirkland in 1998. Mr. Blandford focuses his practice on civil litigation with an emphasis in all areas of labor and employment law. Mr. Blandford is currently involved in a substantial amount of employment related work, including representing clients in state and federal court and before the EEOC and various Human Rights Commissions. He has represented a variety of clients in all state and federal administrative agencies, and in state and federal courts under the FMLA, ADEA, Title VII, and numerous state civil rights acts. In addition, he regularly represents and advises business clients in preparation of employment policies, employment manuals and general personnel matters, including hiring and firing. Mr. Blandford has experience in initiating lawsuits on behalf of employers to enforce non-compete agreements and to protect against and recover for misappropriations of trade secrets. The employers represented by Mr. Blandford maintain employees from as small as a handful to thousands. Mr. Blandford is a frequent speaker on employment issues and works with clients on preventive strategies to avoid discrimination, retaliation and other employment claims.

Mr. Blandford was a presenter at the 2009 Kentucky Association of Homes and Services for the Aging Annual Conference (October 14-16, 2009) on the topic: Avoid Mistakes: Hot Topics in Employment and Labor Law for 2009. On October 8, 2009, Mr. Blandford and other MMLK lawyers that practice employment law presented Employment Policies and Procedures: A Critical Legal Update for Employers. He was also a panel speaker at the seminar sponsored by the Kentucky Chapter of the Federal Bar Association entitled Introduction to Practice Before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (May 27, 2009). Recently, in May of 2011 Mr. Blandford participated on a panel at the Federal Practice Seminar speaking on the topic "Practicing Civil Cases" sponsored by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and the Federal Bar Association Kentucky Chapter.

Mr. Blandford is a member of the Defense Research Institute ("DRI"), an international organization of attorneys defending the interests of businesses and individuals in civil litigation. Mr. Blandford is a member of the Employment Law Committee of DRI. Along with another Lexington lawyer, Mr. Blandford authored the Kentucky chapter of the DRI Defense Library Series Employment Law, A State-by-State Compendium.

Representative Cases

• Stephen G. Amato, Jaron P. Blandford and W. Chapman Hopkins, recently concluded a five-day trial in a complex Will contest action that resulted in a verdict in favor of our client in Estill Circuit Court. The case involved nearly three years of litigation regarding the validity of two competing wills for an estate valued at over $800,000.00. Our client, as Plaintiff in the action, sought to enforce a prior Will in her favor as against a later Will recorded shortly before her death. The Defendants claimed that the prior Will, in favor of our client was procured by undue influences and sought to uphold their later-recorded Will, leaving nothing to our client. After six hours of deliberation, at approximately midnight on the fifth day of trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of our client, unanimously upholding the validity of our client's Will against the Defendant's claims of undue influence, and finding that the later-recorded Will was invalid due to lack of mental capacity of the testatrix at the time of execution. As a result of the jury's findings, our client was awarded the entire estate, with Defendants taking nothing.