About Jason

Jason Coltharp was born in 1976 in Paducah, Kentucky to Rick Coltharp and Ginny Black Coltharp. He has one sister, Kate Coltharp Chalk, and numerous cousins, aunts, uncles, and other family in western Kentucky. Jason has been married for 20 years to the lovely Heather Lindauer Coltharp, who is a math professor at West Kentucky Community & Technical College and formerly taught at Livingston Central High School. He is the proud father of two active boys and two mischievous whippets.

Jason has earned a reputation as an excellent writer and a skilled and ethical litigator. Fellow lawyers and judges have honored him with a Martindale-Hubbell AV-Preeminent ranking, a distinction reserved for the top ten percent of all attorneys nationwide. Jason has litigated cases throughout western Kentucky and across the state, and he has handled nearly three dozen appeals – obtaining favorable appellate opinions an impressive 80 percent of the time, including his last 12 consecutive appellate opinions. In one appeal involving 5 dozen parties and 2 dozen attorneys, 10 of those attorneys selected Jason to write the appellate brief on behalf of their collective 38 clients, and 23 attorneys later chose him to present the oral argument on behalf of their collective 58 clients.

Jason spent his childhood in Paducah, and after relocating to Bowling Green, KY for three years, returned to Paducah, where he graduated fourth in his class from Paducah Tilghman High School. Active in Boy Scouts in both Paducah and Bowling Green, he became an Eagle Scout in 1991.

After high school, Jason enrolled in the Honors Program (now the Lewis Honors College) at the University of Kentucky, ultimately earning degrees in both history and political science. His paper on western Kentucky during the Civil War won U.K.’s Philo Bennett Award for the university’s best undergraduate history paper. In 1998, Jason graduated with honors from U.K. and was selected for membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest honor society in the United States.

Jason earned a full scholarship to the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he again excelled as a student and finished in the top ten percent of his class. While a law student, Jason was selected first as a member, and then as an editor, of the Kentucky Law Journal, and his courtroom skills earned him a spot on the College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Board. While serving on the Kentucky Law Journal staff, Jason won an award for his editorial work and had his student note selected for publication in the Journal. Upon graduation, he was selected for membership in Order of the Coif legal honor society.

After completing law school, Jason obtained a highly sought-after federal judicial clerkship and returned home to Paducah for a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell. At the 2003 conclusion of that judicial clerkship , Jason began practicing at Whitlow, Roberts, Houston & Straub, PLLC, where he was able to work with, and learn from, many of the best lawyers in Kentucky.

Jason has been active in the community for many years, serving on the boards of Easter Seals West Kentucky (President-Elect); Paducah-McCracken County Joint Sewer Agency; Paducah Film Society (n/k/a Paducah Art House Alliance) (Secretary); Paducah-McCracken County Growth, Inc.; Paducah Tennis Association; and McCracken County University of Kentucky Alumni Association (President). Jason is an alumnus of Leadership Paducah Class 20, and he is an active member of the Rotary Club of Paducah.

Jason worships at Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah, where he serves on the vestry and as a layreader.

Jason is currently President-Elect of the McCracken County Bar Association and President-Elect of the Kentucky Defense Counsel. He serves on the Kentucky Bar Association Attorney Advertising Commission, and is a 2019 inductee into the International Association of Defense Counsel. While a member of the Kentucky Defense Counsel, he was one of three founding editors of that organization’s biannual magazine, Common Defense. Jason was honored for his work on that magazine with Kentucky Defense Counsel’s 2018 Executive Committee Award.

Jason is a historic preservation enthusiast, and he puts that enthusiasm to work on his own house, which is 117 years old. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, hiking, walking his dogs with his family, playing tennis, and an occasional snowskiing trip.