Kenneth M. Perry
Kenneth (“Ken”) Perry received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989. He remained there, graduating from law school with honors in 1993, and was inducted into the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for graduates in the top 10% of their classes. During law school, Ken served on the North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation. He also was awarded a Masters of Arts in City & Regional Planning in 1993, completing the course work and requirements for that degree concurrently with his law study. Ken’s degree in City and Regional Planning provided him invaluable, advanced study of economics, statistics and finance.
Ken Perry’s legal career started in 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama in the litigation group at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, an Am Law 200 regional law firm based in that city. Ken earned equity partnership at Bradley on January 1, 2000, and remained in that capacity his entire career until the end of 2017, when he formed Ken Perry Law Firm, LLC, a boutique complex/commercial litigation firm. Over the years Ken has been recognized by “Super Lawyers,” “Best Lawyers,” and as a “Benchmark Litigation Star.” His peers also rated him “AV Preeminent,” the highest recognition available by Martindale Hubbell, the oldest lawyer rating service in the U.S. Ken is a member of the Products Liability Advisory Council. In addition, he is a member of the Litigation Council of America. Moreover, recently, Ken was recognized by Savoy Magazine in its July 2018 edition profiling the “Most Influential Black Lawyers of 2018.”
Ken’s legal practice focus remains in the area of complex litigation, including products liability and commercial litigation, primarily for Fortune 500 and multi-national entities. In his career, he has often found himself defending companies against civil claims in the most challenging venues in the United States. He has never flinched at such opportunities; indeed, a notable career success came early when he successfully defended an international tire manufacturer in a wrongful death and catastrophic brain injury case pending in rural Alabama. The defense verdict was the first for a corporate defendant in that county, and the verdict was featured by the National Law Journal as one of the top defense verdicts of that year nationally.
Ken has always been regarded as a trailblazer and therefore, despite the rewards of a successful career at Bradley, he decided that starting his own law firm was the natural progression for him. Nevertheless, Ken takes pride in the progress he helped Bradley achieve over the years, including progress in the area of diversity. For example, Ken created scholarship, internship, and retention programs at Bradley—all designed to promote the careers of aspiring lawyers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the profession. Ken chaired Bradley’s Diversity Committee from its inception in 2010 until his departure in 2017. At that time he also served on Bradley’s Recruiting Committee (since 1999) and the Associate Evaluation Committee.
Ken’s wife, Tonya, is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Ken and Tonya have one child (Karolyn), a lawyer in private practice in Nashville, Tennessee. Ken serves as a Deacon at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham. His other recent involvement includes service on of the boards of directors for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (treasurer) and the National Conference for Community and Justice (chairman-elect). Ken is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi.
