March 19, 1929 – March 12, 2006
Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC fondly remembers James Stirling Welch, who was of counsel to the firm. Mr. Welch, a prominent attorney and leader in the arts community, maintained the stature of the law firm over the decades he was a part of it through his commitment to legal excellence and his extensive civic involvement.
Born March 19, 1929 in Alexandria, VA, he earned his law degree in 1956 from the University of Virginia, where he was editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review.
His law career began at Shearman and Sterling in New York City. In 1959 he joined the Louisville law firm that became known in 1992 as Ogden Newell & Welch. Mr. Welch’s legal practice was concentrated in corporate financing and securities law.
Among the firm’s clients is Brown-Forman Corporation on whose board he served as a director from 1976 until 1999 and for whom he was actively involved in the acquisition of several of the Company’s brands, including Canadian Mist, Southern Comfort and Bolla and Fetzer wines and Lenox Inc. He also served as director of The Courier-Journal, Louisville Times Co., WHAS, Inc., Standard Gravure, Inc., Hilliard Lyons Trust Company and American Printing House for the Blind.
He was an active member of the community serving as director and past president of the Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts, The Kentucky Opera Association, the Norton Psychiatric Council, and the Macauley Theater, Inc. (now the Brown Theatre). Mr. Welch was vice president and member of the Board of Governors of the J.B. Speed Art Museum and director or trustee of the Visiting Nurse Association, the Louisville Science Center, Bellarmine College and Filson Club (now Filson Historical Society).
A conference room in the law firm space in PNC Plaza has been named in Mr. Welch’s honor.