The Center has hired Rebecca Ballard DiLoreto as its Litigation Director. Rebecca comes to CLC with a distinguished background. Raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Rebecca graduated as school president and Valedictorian from Sayre High School. Rebecca then graduated Magne Cum Laude with a major in American Studies from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachussetts, and was honored for writing the best thesis on a religious topic. After working with Lakota tribes and then Benadictine nuns in South Dakota, Rebecca returned to Kentucky and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law. Rebecca had a twenty-four year career with the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) in indigent defense. She served as Post Trial Division Director for DPA for ten years and was the first director of the Lexington Public Defender’s Office. The Juvenile Code was implemented in 1986 and Rebecca immediately began to teach juvenile law to attorneys in DPA. She wrote the first Juvenile Law Manual for the agency in the early 1990’s. Rebecca's career spanned appellate, trial and post conviction work. She has represented young people in juvenile, family and circuit court across the Commonwealth, as well as advocating on behalf of clients facing the death penalty. Rebecca established the Juvenile Post Disposition Branch following CLC's M.K. v. Wallace lawsuit that secured the first amendment right to the assistance of counsel to access the courts for children in Kentucky. Rebecca assisted in two assessments of the quality of juvenile representation in Kentucky conducted by CLC and the American Bar Association (ABA). Additionally, she has participated in ABA juvenile indigent defense assessments in eight other states.
Rebecca is married to Don, an Italian romantic and pilot. Together they have three children.
