Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton has hired a top Cincinnati lawyer experienced in labor employment law and sexual harassment cases to defend him in a lawsuit filed by a woman claiming she had an affair with him.

Patton

        Deborah S. Adams, a lawyer in the Cincinnati office of Frost Brown Todd, is representing the governor in the suit filed by Tina Conner, 40, of Hickman County. Ms. Conner claims Mr. Patton had state regulators target her western Kentucky nursing home after she broke off their two-year sexual affair in 1999.

        Ms. Adams did not return a phone call to comment. Mr. Patton has denied the allegations.

        It is not clear how Mr. Patton learned of Ms. Adams, a Harvard-educated lawyer and Indian Hill resident who colleagues said is one of the best in the region at what she does.

        Mr. Patton's Frankfort office said little Thursday when asked why he hired Ms. Adams. “The governor has chosen the individual that he feels is best qualified to handle this litigation,” said Rusty Cheuvront, Mr. Patton's spokesman, in an e-mail response.

        People in the local legal community said they were not surprised that Mr. Patton hired Ms. Adams.

        “I would say she is one of the top labor and employment attorneys in the Midwest,” said Mark Guilfoyle, an Edgewood lawyer who worked with Ms. Adams from 1983 to 1987. “She has a particular emphasis on sexual harassment claims.”

        Mr. Guilfoyle, a Democratic Party strategist close to the Patton administration, would not comment on whether he recommended Ms. Adams for the case.

        John Norwine, executive director of the Cincinnati Bar Association, said Ms. Adams is in the “top echelon” locally of attorneys who practice labor law.

        “Over the years, she has created quite a reputation in employment practice and sexual harassment lawsuits,” Mr. Norwine said.

Conner

        Ms. Conner filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, Louisville.

        In an interview with the Courier-Journal, Ms. Conner said she filed the suit because Mr. Patton abused his power and damaged her nursing home with inspections that led the state and federal governments to cut off Medicaid and Medicare payments and send beneficiaries of those programs elsewhere. He took those steps after she ended the affair, Ms. Conner says.

        The Frost Brown Todd Web site shows that Ms. Adams has published several legal journal articles on sexual harassment and labor law, including articles entitled “Sexual Harassment Myths and Realities — A Kentucky Employer's Guide,” which was published in the Kentucky Labor Letter in 1999, and “Law and Politics — The Impact on Employment Rulings,” also for the Kentucky Labor Letter in 2000.

        The Web site also states that Ms. Adams was the “primary counsel in two leading sexual-harassment decisions in the Sixth Circuit” U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati in cases involving Zaring Homes, an area builder, and the restaurant chain KFC.

        Ms. Adams graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1977, and was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa. She went on to Harvard, where she received a master's degree in classics in 1979 and a law degree in 1982.

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