{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court permanently disbarred retired judge Joseph F. "Jay" Bamberger, a circuit court judge in Boone and Gallatin counties from 1992 until 2004. The high court found Bamberger signed off on a deal that gave attorneys nearly two-thirds of a 2001 settlement involving the diet drug fen-phen and didn't disclose to clients the terms of the deal. Bamberger described himself as "embarrassed" during a criminal trial related to the settlement and he stepped down as judge in February 2006 to avoid being removed by Kentucky's judicial conduct commission for his actions. The court ordered Bamberger to pay $18,700 to cover the cost of the disciplinary proceedings. To date, Bamberger and four attorneys who took part in the settlement have lost their licenses. The state's high court is also weighing a request from the Kentucky Bar Association to revoke the license of Stanley Chesley, a prominent Cincinnati attorney known as the "Master of Disaster" for his handling of large, class-action cases. The high court found that attorneys William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., along with Melbourne Mills Jr., kept $126 million, more than 63 percent of the settlement, for themselves and took another $20 million in "excess funds." The men distributed $74,194,577 to their clients, who were never told about the total amount of the settlement or the fees kept by the lawyers.
