For professional advisors

Refer a client.Kentucky-licensed. Responsive.

Johnson Legal PLLC accepts referrals from financial advisors, trust officers, estate planners, veterans service officers, and hospice and bereavement coordinators serving Kentucky clients. Twenty years of legal practice, published flat fees on most matters, and a commitment to respond within one to two business days.

No referral fees. Kentucky's Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit a lawyer from giving anything of value for a referral (SCR 3.130(7.20)), and Johnson Legal PLLC does not — the referral relationship is built on good work and a quick response, nothing else.

Who we work with

Five professions we work with.

Financial advisors.

For clients whose plan needs a Kentucky-format will, durable power of attorney, advance directive, or revocable trust drafted and properly executed. Flat fees, signed in person at the Elizabethtown office.

Trust officers.

For account-holders who need an independent Kentucky-licensed attorney to draft, review, or integrate trust documents — including funding paperwork that actually moves assets into the trust during life.

Estate planners.

For client matters that require a Kentucky-licensed attorney for execution: in-person signings under KRS 394.040 and Kentucky-specific trust funding that actually moves assets into the trust.

Hospice and bereavement coordinators.

For families navigating an estate after a loss in Kentucky. Probate, small-estate proceedings, deed transfers, and the documents the family needs to settle the matter.

Veterans service officers and VSOs.

For a claim that has moved past what a service officer can carry — a denial that needs a legal theory rather than another form, or a record that has to be built for the Board. The firm's attorney, Durward Elton Johnson, is accredited by the VA Office of General Counsel to represent claimants before VA, and the work is post-decision only. The referral runs both ways: where a veteran is well served by a VSO already, that is the recommendation, and a limited appointment can bring him in for one appeal without ending yours.

How the referral process works

Four steps. One business day to first contact.

You introduce the client.

Use the form below, or send an email to elton@johnsonbluegrasslaw.com. If your client wishes to remain anonymous until I confirm I can take the matter, that's fine — say so on the form and I'll respond to you, not to them.

I respond within 24–48 hours.

Standard response window is one business day. For urgent matters (a probate clock running, a closing scheduled, a hospital advance-directive need), mark the form “urgent” and I'll respond same-day where possible.

I run a conflict check.

Before I have any substantive conversation with the client, I confirm there is no conflict of interest with them or with anyone adverse to their matter. Until that check is clear, no attorney-client relationship is formed.

SCR 3.130(1.18) · Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct

The client and I sign an engagement letter.

If the firm can take the matter and your client wants to proceed, I send a written engagement letter that names the matter, the scope, the fee and how it is calculated, and how the work will be done. On most matters that is a published flat fee. On a VA appeal it is contingent rather than flat — federal law governs when a fee may be charged at all — and the figure is in the agreement before any work starts. The client is my client when both of us have signed.

SCR 3.130(1.5) · Fee + scope in writing

Co-branded client handouts

Available Q3 2026.

One-page client handouts — Kentucky probate basics, the three-document estate plan, the deed-and-mortgage closing checklist — co-brandable with your firm's logo and contact card, are in development. They'll be available as PDF downloads from this page in Q3 2026. If you'd like to be notified when they ship, send a note via the form below or email elton@johnsonbluegrasslaw.com.

Refer a Kentucky client.

The form below introduces the matter only — your client does not need to be on this submission. Please share only general information; privileged details follow after the conflict check.

Before you submit: No attorney-client relationship is formed between Johnson Legal PLLC and your client by this referral, by my receipt of it, or by any conversation that follows, until I have run a conflict check and your client and I have both signed a written engagement letter.

Please share only general information now. Do not include privileged details, sensitive fact-narratives, or documents. The conflict check usually takes one business day.

This is an advertisement. Durward Elton Johnson, KY Bar # 101547, is responsible for its content.