Laurie K. Dudgeon

As director of the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts, Laurie K. Dudgeon oversees nearly 3,300 employees, including 403 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks. She administers the $300 million Judicial Branch budget, drafts and promotes passage of legislation affecting the courts, and works with officials at the county, state and national levels.

Since being named director in 2009, she has commissioned the National Center for State Courts to audit the AOC in an effort to achieve a leaner, more efficient organizational structure. She has also overseen the court system’s largest personnel reduction in recent memory in response to the state budget crisis. She is currently leading the Judicial Branch’s efforts to replace its obsolete case management system with one that will support e-filing, e-records, video conferencing and an automated payable process and improve the flow of information among all four levels of the court system.

Director Dudgeon previously served as executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy and as a staff attorney in the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. She gained experience in constitutional law, employment law, administrative law, and commercial and residential real estate law during nine years in private practice at three law firms in Kentucky and South Carolina.

She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in history in 1991 and earned a juris doctor from the UK College of Law in 1994.

In 2007, she received the Secretary’s Award for Superior Performance from the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, the Commissioner’s Second Chance Team Award from the Kentucky Department of Corrections and the Service Award Recognition for Drug Enforcement Efforts in the Commonwealth from the Kentucky Narcotics Officers Association.

Director Dudgeon is a native of Somerset, Ky. She currently resides in Frankfort, Ky.