Kenneth R. Kirby, admitted to the practice of law since 1983, is an Assistant County Attorney who represents the County of Erie in a variety of matters, including appeals and the defense of personal injury and civil rights claims and the litigation of contractual disputes involving the County or its departments, officers or employees. Previously, he was in private practice, representing assureds and other individual, corporate, and governmental clients in personal injury, insurance coverage, premises, professional, and products liability litigation, and commercial litigation. Mr. Kirby has argued or briefed over 100 appeals in all New York and federal appellate courts. Mr. Kirby also successfully represented the former Mayor of the City of Buffalo in the Buffalo City School District federal school desegregation lawsuit, Arthur v. Nyquist, 716 F. Supp. 1484 (W.D.N.Y.1989), later reported at 904 F. Supp. 112 (W.D.N.Y.1995).
Mr. Kirby’s published article, “The Six-Year Legal Malpractice Statute of Limitations: Judicial Usurpation of the Legislative Prerogative?” (66 N. Y. St. B. J. 14 [No. 8, Dec. 1994]), precipitated an amendment of CPLR 214(6) to clarify that the appropriate statute of limitations applicable to claims of non-medical professional malpractice is three years, not six years, “regardless of whether the underlying theory is based in contract or tort.” See, McKinney’s
N. Y. Session Laws, L.1996, c.623, sec. 1, eff. Sept. 4, 1996. Recently, Mr. Kirby’s article, “The Note of Issue Filing Requirement,” was published in the June 2014 edition of The New York State Bar Journal.
