Brad Cowgill

Part Time Instructor

Bradford L. (Brad) Cowgill is a Lexington attorney with diverse experiences in legal, governmental, business and civic affairs. Mr. Cowgill is president of SmartClaim, a bankruptcy asset management firm, and Pixar Financial Services, an administrative services firm.

A native of Lexington, Mr. Cowgill practiced law for 26 years with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs and Stites & Harbison, concentrating in corporate matters and commercial litigation, including particularly construction disputes, real estate development and state tax.

From 2003 until 2007, Mr. Cowgill served as State Budget Director, one of three statutory offices reporting directly to the Governor. Mr. Cowgill was the principal author of Kentucky's Tax Modernization Act of 2005. During a period of fiscal turbulence following the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Mr. Cowgill and his staff prepared the Governor’s executive branch budgets for 2004, 2005 and 2006.

In 2007-08, Mr. Cowgill served as Interim President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education where he advanced the state's 'Double the Numbers' goal for increasing for bachelor's degrees, developed a 'performance funding model' for higher education and advocated a proactive exercise of the Council's authority to make tuition affordable at Kentucky's public institutions. He has chaired the boards of Saint Joseph Hospital, the New Century Lexington Partnership, United Way of the Bluegrass, Kentucky Continuing Legal Education Commission, TEAM (Toward Efficiency in Administration and Management) Lexington, Inc., the 1990 Annual Meeting of Kentucky Attorneys, the advisory board of the Lexington Community College, the Lexington-Fayette Historic Commission and the Lexington Transit Authority. In 1993 Mr. Cowgill served as Councilmember-at-Large of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. He was recognized in 1984 as 'Lexington's Outstanding Young Man.

Mr. Cowgill graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1974 with a degree in economics and political science and from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1977.

Courses Taught

• PA 696-201 Legal Issues in Public Financial Management (Master of Public Financial Management, Online)