Lynnette Noblitt
- Professor; Director of Paralegal Programs
- J.D., University of Michigan Law School
Contact Information
- Department: Department of Government
- Office: Beckham 100C
- Email: lynnette.noblitt@eku.edu
- Phone: 622-4379
Bio
The regrettable thing about being a good department chair is that when the job is done well, nobody notices. The chair works behind the scenes to make sure the department runs smoothly, the faculty improves year to year, the classes and events don’t conflict, and the degree programs maintain their accreditation. A mark of Professor Lynnette Noblitt’s success at the chair of the Department of Government is that she is equally well-known for her success coaching the EKU Mock Trial team (affectionately known as the "Mocklets"), and as Director of EKU's Paralegal Programs. The department itself “just works.” Last week, we sat down with Professor Noblitt to learn more about her.
Professor Noblitt came to EKU eight years ago 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 (the process of applying for a trademark). She received her B.S. from Yale and an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, but decided that she just could not spend all day in a lab, and so took a J.D. from University of Michigan rather than continue to a Ph.D. 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 a trademark in which her legal team flooded the court with stuffed white teddy bears to demonstrate the ubiquity of the product. After the trial, 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. She also oversees interns within the Department of Government. She is not completely separated from her legal roots, though. As Director Paralegal Programs, she stays in touch with the paralegal community so that the program can produce better paralegal graduates that 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.