Sometime in the middle of the night nearly a decade ago, KKHB Partner Jim Sigler woke up with an idea. As Jim remembers it, the thought came to him at roughly 2 a.m.: “What if western Kentucky’s legal community created an event that did more than raise money? What if it gathered people around the example of someone whose life represented what the profession ought to be, and then used that gathering to support the work of the Kentucky Bar Foundation?” The person Sigler had in mind was Judge Edward H. Johnstone.
Judge Johnstone, who passed away in 2013, was remembered throughout Kentucky’s legal community not simply for the positions he held, but for the way he practiced and administered the law. To those who knew him, he represented professionalism without pretense, strong advocacy without sacrificing civility, and a belief that a career in the law carried responsibilities beyond the courtroom. Jim’s late-night idea was to preserve that example by recognizing attorneys who reflected those same values. That idea became the Judge Edward H. Johnstone Award Dinner.
Thursday, November 12th, the legal community will gather in Paducah for the tenth annual dinner, marking a decade since an idea conceived in the middle of the night grew into one of western Kentucky’s enduring legal traditions. The 2026 recipient, Murray native Gary B. Houston, will be recognized Nov. 12 for a career spanning nearly six decades and distinguished by both professional accomplishment and service to his profession and community.
Mr. Houston practiced extensively in estate planning, trust and estate administration, and business law while building a reputation that extended throughout western Kentucky. His selection places him in a line of attorneys and jurists honored not simply for professional success, but because their careers reflect the principles the award was created to preserve. The anniversary is an occasion to celebrate him and the nine recipients who came before him. It is also an opportunity to look beyond the dinner itself and at the larger story it has helped tell for ten years: a story about what lawyers can accomplish when service becomes part of the definition of a successful legal career.
An Idea Built Around Honor
Fundraising events are hardly unusual. The premise behind the Johnstone dinner was different. Jim’s insight was that support for the Kentucky Bar Foundation did not have to begin with an appeal rooted primarily in obligation. It could begin with honor. Bring lawyers together around the example of someone they respected. Recognize a colleague whose life demonstrated those same qualities. Then allow that celebration of the profession at its best to strengthen the Foundation’s ability to serve people throughout Kentucky.
From the beginning, the idea depended on far more than one person. Colleagues, Foundation leaders, members of the Johnstone family and supporters throughout the legal community helped shape an annual event from Jim’s initial inspiration. Over ten years, recipients, sponsors and attendees have sustained it. That distinction matters. The origin story belongs to a 2 a.m. idea Sigler still remembers clearly. The tradition that followed belongs to the many people who believed the idea was worth building.
At its center, however, Judge Johnstone remains the standard. The implicit question behind the award has always been straightforward: Does this attorney’s life and career reflect the qualities Judge Johnstone represented? Professionalism. Ethical leadership. Excellence in advocacy. Respect for the law and for the people it serves. A willingness to give something back to the community and profession that made the career possible. An award built on that standard does something beyond recognizing the person who receives it. It tells everyone else in the room what the profession has chosen to value.
Where the Money Goes
The dinner also creates a connection between western Kentucky’s legal community and work taking place across the Commonwealth through the Kentucky Bar Foundation. Founded in 1958, the Foundation channels charitable support from Kentucky’s legal profession into programs that strengthen access to justice, legal education and law-related public service. Its grants have supported organizations serving children, families, veterans, survivors of violence and Kentuckians who might otherwise have little or no access to legal assistance. That work is often far removed from the public image of law.
Most people encounter attorneys when something has already gone wrong: a divorce, a criminal charge, a business dispute, an injury, a death, a custody battle or another moment when the stakes suddenly become very real. Far fewer see the collective infrastructure behind the profession: the lawyers and law firms supporting legal aid, advocacy organizations, shelters and programs intended to help people navigate those moments regardless of their ability to pay.
The Kentucky Bar Foundation operates largely in that quieter space. Over its history, it has distributed millions of dollars to law-related charitable programs throughout Kentucky. Through both direct charitable support and the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program, the legal profession has helped direct significant resources toward access to justice.
The Judge Johnstone Award Dinner has become one western Kentucky expression of that larger effort. What began as a way to honor an extraordinary judge has also generated meaningful financial support for the Foundation and, ultimately, for organizations serving Kentuckians far beyond the walls of the banquet room.
What a Profession Chooses to Remember
There is another reason the story matters in its tenth year. Every profession teaches its values in ways both formal and informal. Law schools teach rules, doctrine and procedure. Courts enforce standards. Bar associations establish expectations for professional conduct. But communities also teach through the people they choose to honor. That may be one of the Johnstone Award’s most lasting contributions.
A young attorney attending the dinner does not simply see someone receive a plaque. That attorney sees a room recognize a career built over decades. The characteristics being applauded are not only courtroom victories, professional titles or financial success. They include character, preparation, collegiality, service, integrity and commitment to community.
For lawyers early in their careers, those signals matter. In conversations about the future of the profession, young people sometimes describe an image of law shaped largely by its loudest examples: adversarial, intimidating, transactional or concerned primarily with winning. Yet many of those same future lawyers enter the profession because they want to solve problems, advocate for people and do work that matters.
The Johnstone tradition offers a different picture of what a legal career can look like. So does the Kentucky Bar Foundation. Together, they demonstrate that advocacy and service are not competing ideas and that professional success and responsibility to others need not be separated.
Ten Years Later
On November 12, 2026, Gary B. Houston will become the tenth recipient honored through that tradition. His recognition will celebrate nearly six decades of practice, but the evening will also mark something larger: ten years since a middle-of-the-night idea became a recurring reminder of what one legal community believes deserves to endure.
It would be easy to tell the story through numbers alone: years of practice, dollars raised, grants distributed, people served. Those measurements matter because they demonstrate reach. They do not fully explain why the idea lasted. The better explanation may lie in the premise Jim Sigler first imagined at 2 a.m.
Honor someone worth remembering. Recognize others who live by the same principles. Use the occasion to help people who may never enter the room. Then do it again the next year.
Ten years later, that simple idea has become a tradition. And perhaps that is the quiet work of justice too: not only what happens when a case is argued or a judgment is entered, but what happens when a profession decides which values are worth carrying forward, and builds something sturdy enough to pass them on.