Judge Kenneth Ballard was appointed to the circuit court bench in Kanawha County on April 26, 2021. He was elected in 2022 and re-elected in 2024. He is the former Kanawha County Juvenile Drug Court Judge.

Judge Ballard was born in 1974 and grew up in Charleston. He graduated from George Washington High School in 1992. He was a member of the 1991 AAA Boys’ West Virginia Cross-Country Championship team, and he was the AAA 800-meter State Champion.

He has a 1997 bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Marshall University and a 2001 law degree magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the Law Review.

After graduating from Marshall University, he worked for a year as an environmental scientist for Roy F. Weston. After graduating from law school, he worked at the Charleston firm Bickley & Jacobs, where he had worked during summers since high school. He then opened his own practice in 2004, focusing on family law, abuse and neglect, guardian ad litem, and criminal cases. He also worked as a Kanawha County Mental Hygiene Commissioner from 2006-2008.

Judge Ballard was elected to the family court bench in Kanawha County in 2008 and re-elected in 2016. He was Chief Kanawha County Family Court Judge from 2010 until his appointment to the circuit court bench in 2021. He was President of the Family Court Judges Association in 2013 and 2017.

He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Judge Ballard is married to Allison Ballard, and they have three children.