Edward M. O'Brien

Edward M. O’Brien is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of O'Brien Whitt Publishing, Managing Editor of the Kentucky Appellate Survey and Kentucky Appellate Survey Monthly, and an Associate Attorney in Wilson Elser’s Louisville office, focusing his general civil defense practice on insurance defense, commercial litigation, arbitration, nursing home litigation, business consulting, appellate advocacy, complex tort litigation, and general civil defense. Eddie is also Associate Editor of TYL Magazine, which is the principal publication of the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division and distributed to 130,000 attorneys nationwide.

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A large component of Eddie's professional focus has been appellate advocacy. In his first four years of practice, Eddie authored numerous appellate briefs to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Kentucky, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Notably, Eddie has been a leader in the development of new case law relating to the enforceability of arbitration agreements in the commercial and health-care contexts. He is admitted to practice in all Kentucky state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and all Indiana state courts. 

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During law school, Eddie was active in numerous student organizations, including two years as a member of the Moot Court Board, serving as a writing skills mentor for the Central High School Partnership, and mentoring first-year law students as a Brandeis Academic Fellow. During his tenure as editor in chief of the University of Louisville Law Review, the publication earned national recognition for best practices and innovation from the National Conference of Law Reviews. Additionally, the editorial board successfully attracted the National Conference of Law Reviews to Louisville for its annual conference in 2015, which brought hundreds of attendees and thousands of dollars in economic impact to the community. Eddie served on the steering committee for this project.

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Eddie is a member of the American Bar Association, the Kentucky Bar Association, the Louisville Bar Association, Kentucky Defense Counsel, and the Defense Research Institute. Eddie has also been active in his community as a Big Brother and member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, an independent, nonprofit charitable organization formally founded in 1932. 

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Eddie is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Kentucky and Texas. He received his Bachelor of Science, with honors, in Political Science from Sam Houston State University, where he was named Outstanding Student in Political Science, and his Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, where he received the Omicron Delta Kappa Outstanding Graduating Senior Award, the Stites & Harbison Leadership Award, and the Leon P. Lewis Public Service Fellowship.