Charles “Phillip” Wheeler, Jr. was born on April 13, 1978, and grew up in Pikeville, KY. Following his graduation from Pikeville High School in 1996, Phillip attended Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, graduating magna cum laude in 2000 with a double-major in history and German. Following college, Phillip was chosen as one of 50 Fulbright Teaching Scholars to the Federal Republic of Germany and taught English conversation at Werner-von-Siemens Gymnasium and Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Regensburg, Germany.
Following the completion of the Fulbright Scholarship in 2001, Phillip returned to Kentucky where he enrolled at the University of Kentucky College of Law. While at the College of Law, Phillip served as a member of the Journal of Mineral Law and Natural Resources and had the honor of having two articles chosen for publication. Phillip also spent one summer as a legal assistant to UK legal clinic director Allison Connelly. In his third year of law school, Phillip spent two semesters at the legal clinic assisting poor and indigent plaintiffs as a student-representative under the third-year practice rule.
Following graduation in 2004, Phillip returned home to Eastern Kentucky where he began practicing as an associate counsel at the Kirk Law Firm, first in Paintsville, then at the Pikeville office opened in December 2004.
On April 4, 2007, Phillip was honored by Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher with an appointment as the plaintiff’s representative to the Workers’ Compensation Nominating Commission. During his time on the commission, Phillip has worked consistently for the appointment of pro-worker judges.
