Lynnette Noblitt

• Department Chair and Professor of Government
• J.D., University of Michigan Law School
• M.S., University of Michigan
• B.S., Yale University

Bio

Contact Information

• Department: Government
• Office: Commonwealth 1509
• Mailing Address: Commonwealth 1510
• Email: lynnette.noblitt@eku.edu
• Phone: 859-622-5931

Bio

Professor Noblitt came to EKU in 2005 after a legal career in New York City with the law firm Ropes and Gray.  Her specialties included Intellectual Property (IP) litigation, IP licensing, and trademark prosecution –which is the process of applying for a trademark.  She received her BS from Yale and an MS in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, but decided that she just could not spend all day in a lab, and so took a JD from University of Michigan, rather than continue to a PhD.  Amused that, despite fleeing graduate school into law she is now a successful academic, she said that she wouldn’t have imagined her current position when she graduated from Michigan.  Still, she is happy to be at EKU and loves what she does now.  Nonetheless, she fondly recalls the stories from her career as an IP lawyer, including a case involving the trademark where her legal team flooded the court with stuffed white teddy bears to demonstrate the ubiquity of the product.  Afterwards, the toys were donated to children.  She also once helped a potential witness wash sheep in exchange for discussing possible prior art in a patent infringement suit.

At EKU, Professor Noblitt teaches in several areas, including Introduction to Law, Introduction to Legal Studies, Animals and the Law, Expert Witness Testimony, and she oversees interns within the Department of Government.  She is not completely separated from her legal roots, though.  As director of the paralegal program, she stays in touch with the paralegal community so that the program can form better paralegal graduates who are current on the needs of the legal community.  This involves a lot of communication with the American Bar Association and local attorneys.  Professor Noblitt also coaches the EKU Mock Trial team, which often places at regional tournaments and advances to national tournaments.  She likes that Mock Trial allows her to combine her love of law with the competitiveness of sport.  “It fills my litigation void,” she says.

Away from Eastern Kentucky University, Professor Noblitt is a fan of yoga and likes frogs.  She has also become something of an expert on baseball from her sons’ little league games –recording the box scores, scoring errors, and keeping pitch counts.

Courses