Republican candidate for attorney general of Kentucky Daniel Cameron.

Daniel Cameron, former in-house legal counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell and now the Republican candidate for Kentucky attorney general, is awaiting a judge's ruling on whether he can remain on the November ballot.

Jefferson County, Kentucky, Circuit Judge Barry Willett held a hearing Monday on a Louisville resident's lawsuit alleging that Cameron has failed to practice law for eight years prior to running for attorney general, as required by the Kentucky Constitution.

While his two years with McConnell and another four years in private practice qualify as practicing law, the suit questions his two years served as a clerk to a federal judge. Without the two clerkship years, Cameron doesn't meet the requirement.

Cameron, according to news reports, testified Monday that working as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky fulfills the constitutional requirement. He argued that Van Tatenhove was his client and he was practicing law by advising on legal matters, working on opinions and doing legal research.

Cameron, now a senior associate at Frost Brown Todd in Louisville, did not return phone and email messages Tuesday. He serves as a principal of CivicPoint, a Frost Brown Todd government relations subsidiary.

He was represented in court by noted Kentucky attorney Sheryl Snyder, a Frost Brown Todd managing associate who has represented seven former Kentucky governors, of both parties, on various constitutional issues.

Snyder, who served as general counsel of insurance holding company ICH Corp. before joining Frost Todd, told Corporate Counsel on Tuesday, "I think the law is definitely on our side."

He cited at least three reasons why. First, he said, there is some case law stating that just having a law license for eight years satisfies the requirement.

Second, he said most other states recognize that clerkships constitute the practice of law and they recognize it in their admissions standards.

In addition, Snyder said there is also substantial and recent Kentucky case law that states where possible questions should be resolved in favor of allowing a candidate to remain on the ballot so the decision is made by the voters and not by the courts.

The suit, filed by attorney Ben Gastel on behalf of resident Joseph Jackson, claims Cameron did not begin practicing law until the clerkship ended in 2013 and Cameron went into private practice.

Gastel, a partner in the Nashville office of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, argued in court that Cameron did not list the federal judge on his client lists, according to news reports. Gastel did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

He also argued that ethical rules forbid federal clerks from practicing law except in limited circumstances, such as a pro bono civil case.

Cameron is a Republican who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. He is running against Democrat Gregory Stumbo, who has served 30 years in the Kentucky General Assembly and four years, from 2004 to 2008, as state attorney general.

Republicans claim the lawsuit is a Stumbo ploy to highlight Cameron's relative youth and lack of experience. Gastel denied that claim, and told reporters that the plaintiff doesn't even know Stumbo.

Cameron's resume shows he received his law degree in 2011 from Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville and then went into the two-year federal court clerkship.

In 2013 he joined the Louisville law firm Stites & Harbison for 18 months as a business litigation lawyer and then became in-house legal counsel to McConnell, the Senate majority leader in Washington, D.C., until June 2017.

Returning to Louisville, he joined Frost Brown Todd, where he has been for about two years and five months.

His legal experience totals about eight years, if the clerkship is included.

The county court judge promised an expedited ruling on the suit, Snyder said, probably by the end of this week.