Damon Preston has worked as a public defender for 29 years and is Kentucky’s Public Advocate. After graduating from Transylvania University and Harvard Law School, Damon began his legal career as a public defender in New York City with the Legal Aid Society. He returned to Kentucky to join the Department of Public Advocacy in 1997. With DPA, he has worked in defender offices in Richmond, Paducah, and Cynthiana and has led the statewide Appeals Branch. Altogether, he has represented clients in twenty-one Kentucky counties and before the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Kentucky. As a part of DPA’s Leadership Team, he has directed DPA’s largest division and has served as General Counsel and Deputy Public Advocate before being appointed Public Advocate in September 2017. Active in the Bar, Damon has served on the Evidence Rules Commission, the Chief Justice’s e-Courts Program Management Committee, and the Criminal Justice Policy Assessment Council and is on the boards of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (Legal Aid). He is also a past chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Kentucky Bar Association.