From the beginning of his teaching career, Dennis Prater was committed to helping nervous law students transform into formidable advocates. That commitment didn’t waiver during his 34 years on the KU Law faculty. Prater retired in December.
A 1973 graduate of KU Law, Prater had been a student director of the Legal Aid Clinic and knew how invaluable the experience could be for future lawyers. When he took the helm in 1984, he became the first practicing attorney to lead the Clinic.
“It was not uncommon the first time students appeared in front of a judge for me to be standing beside them and watching them shake,” said Prater, who directed the Clinic through the summer of 1995. “By the time I got through with them, they were in control of the courtroom.”
In addition to running the Clinic, Prater also taught Evidence, Advanced Litigation and Practice in Kansas. An authority on the law of evidence, he is the lead author of “Evidence: The Objection Method,” a textbook widely adopted at U.S. law schools.
His gift for teaching did not go unrecognized. Prater received the Immel Award for Teaching Excellence in 1993, the Dean Frederick J. Moreau Award in 1989 and 1994, and a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 1998. He was named Connell Teaching Professor of Law in 1999.
There’s a massive difference between being busy and being productive. It’s one thing to spend hours sitting at a desk “working” on homework and getting things crossed off your list. When I first started law school, I thought writing out a long list of assignments to do was helpful for me. However, I quickly realized that it only put stress on me to check off the boxes, and I rarely got everything done on that list. I would spend hours sitting at a desk trying to finish all of my work and then realize I only got two out of 10 things done in a matter of three hours. There never seemed to be enough time in the day to get everything I wanted to get done, including chores and having time for myself.
I found myself overwhelmed with to-dos, and I ended up not doing any of them. I learned a new method of organization called time-blocking. Time-blocking is a method of scheduling a certain amount of time on specific tasks throughout the day. The goal of this method is to allow you to focus on one particular task at a time without distractions. It is very easy to get distracted with social media, replying to emails or texts, or falling down the rabbit hole of the latest BuzzFeed quizzes. Trust me, this has been the most helpful scheduling method I’ve ever used.
The first and only step is to use an electronic calendar and block out as much time you think will need for every task, including: getting ready, driving to and from school and even the much-needed scheduled naps! This will force you to get everything done in the time you’ve allotted. The key to this method is being strict with yourself. If you’ve set one hour to read for Criminal Law, then you have to try and get it done within one hour. This means that leaves little time is left for surfing the web and being on your phone. I recommend putting your phone on silent or “Do Not Disturb.” Don’t forget to schedule breaks in between tasks – this is crucial to not burning yourself out.
Time-blocking isn’t a method that works for everyone, but I’ve found it the most helpful out of all of the things I have tried before. This method helps me not feel extremely overwhelmed by giving me the time I need to “check off the boxes” and be productive with school and social life.
Since I started law school, February has become my favorite month of the year. I don’t have any secret admirers professing their love or my birthday, but KU Law’s Women in Law hosts their annual fundraiser, “Pub Night” this time of year. It’s been a tradition since some of my professors were students at KU Law and embodies the things I love most about KU Law: tradition, community, fun and advocacy.
Women in Law hosts Pub Night as a fundraiser for local organizations that promote awareness about domestic violence. The night includes student skits, fun cocktail dresses, silent and live auctions consisting of donations from downtown businesses and our professors. One year, a group of friends and I bid and won a tour of the Kansas Capitol and lunch in Topeka with our favorite public policy aficionado faculty. I helped run slideshows, put up auction items, decorate Liberty Hall and contribute to the 1L skit. In just the past two years, alongside classmates and friends, Women in Law has raised over $20,000 through event ticket sales, donations and auction items for the Willow Domestic Violence Center and Jana’s Campaign.
Jana’s Campaign: the ten-year-old organization that promotes awareness and education programming about domestic violence. Its founders are parents of KU Law student, Jana Mackey, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend after her first year. Jana’s parents attend Pub Night each year to tell Jana’s story.
KU Law students Jessie Pringle, Erica Ash and Claire Kebodeaux attend the 2018 Pub Night event.
In 2008 – while I was worried about starting high school – Jana Mackey was a victim of domestic violence. For someone I never met but have learned so much from, her legacy continues to inspire not only me, but generations of KU Law students to be passionate and zealous advocates as future lawyers.
Pub Night is not only a fun social event that brings our community together on a Friday night. Rather, it brings our school’s students, staff and faculty together as a reminder that the KU Law community is special. It’s community that celebrates, supports and remembers its students.
As I begin my legal career after graduation in May, I know I have been afforded an opportunity that was taken from Jana. And, I do not plan to waste it.
The 2019 Pub Night event has been rescheduled to April 5, due to inclement weather. Pub Night will beheld from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Liberty Hall in Lawrence. Get tickets.
Law school is a whirlwind, and last semester I often applied a tool I learned in flight school: compartmentalization. It was useful throughout my Navy career and has become ingrained in my thinking. Compartmentalization is a skill developed in flight students to deal with mistakes during a flight. Although, compartmentalization can be used to deal with distractions from both successes and mistakes, it is most often applied in the context of mistakes. Primarily because a series of mistakes can have serious consequences, but mainly because flight students make a lot of mistakes. This makes it essential to not allow a mistake to distract you from accomplishing your next task. For aviators, compartmentalization is a necessary tool because flights are fast-paced graded events crammed with tasks. A single mistake that ripples outward can prevent the achievement of the ultimate goal.
Distractions are often created by the emotional response from a mistake. For example, a flight student misses an important radio call directing the flight and the following thoughts begin to enter the flight student’s mind: “Man, I really screwed up”, “Did the instructor notice?” and “Will this be a re-fly?” Flight instructors encourage students to recognize those thoughts as useless distractions and to utilize compartmentalization as the solution. The act of compartmentalization is intended to prevent these emotions from affecting the remainder of the flight. Aviators are taught to box up the emotion and set it aside for review later, because it is essential for aviators to continue onto the next task. Otherwise, a single, small mistake can cascade into a series of mistakes.
Struggling flight students are often those who do not compartmentalize. Successful flight students recognize the mistake quickly, compartmentalize negative emotions, fix what they can and prepare for the next task. Preparing for the next task involves anticipating follow-on effects of the mistake, considering the next sequence of events and remembering the ultimate goal. In other words, experienced aviators don’t chastise themselves or lament their mistakes. It’s not that aviators ignore their mistakes and don’t reflect on their performance. Instead, aviators understand there’s a better time for analyzing their mistakes: post-flight. It’s a continuous process, because after the post-flight debrief aviators compartmentalize the flight and move on to the next task.
Although a student’s ultimate goal in flight school is obtaining wings of gold rather than a Juris Doctor, law school and flight school are similar in many ways. They’re both fast-paced time deficient and filled with opportunities to improve. In law school, there’s always another cold-call, assignment, memo or meeting to nail. There’s also always another class, semester and year. Since there are so many opportunities for success, I believe compartmentalization is a useful tool in law school when things don’t go as planned. You can compartmentalize in class after a failed cold-call, sub-par memo grade or bombed exam to prevent a cascade of mistakes. Compartmentalizing allows you to raise your hand again, become a better writer, crush the next exam, enjoy time off and prepare for the next semester. Give it a try. See if compartmentalizing works for you.
— Jared Jevons is a 1L from Manhattan and a KU Law Ambassador. He spent 11 years in the Navy and flew over 2,000 hours in the F/A-18F as a Weapon Systems Officer.
Edward Paine delivers justice for victims of serious vehicular crimes
The best part about prosecution for Edward Paine, L’99, is delivering justice for victims.
“Trying to get justice for victims within the system that we have, when we can – that brings me pleasure,” he said.
Paine is a deputy county attorney in the Vehicular Crimes Bureau at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix. He prosecutes crimes involving motor vehicle collisions and incidents in which drivers are found to be driving recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs.
Vehicular Crimes Bureau employees are on call 24 hours a day to assist law enforcement officers with fatal accident investigations.
“It’s been a real eye-opener going to the scenes of crashes and seeing how dangerous vehicles can be in the hands of someone who is driving recklessly, either through speeding or being impaired by alcohol or drugs,” Paine said.
Although he has worked on vehicular crimes for the past six years, Paine’s focus has varied over the course of a prosecutorial career that has taken him from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to the city of Surprise, Arizona, and two different Native American communities. He served as assistant prosecutor for the Ak-Chin Indian Community and chief prosecutor for the Gila River Indian Community – jobs that drew upon his specialized training at KU Law.
Paine discovered his love for tribal law after taking a legal writing course from former KU Law Professor Robert Porter, founding director of the school’s Tribal Law & Government Center. Porter encouraged Paine to take classes in tribal law, and he graduated from KU with a Tribal Lawyer Certificate – paving the way for a career in the field.
“Studying tribal law convinced me that there were so many communities across the country that were deeply in need of attorneys from all different walks of life dedicated to seeking justice and promoting safety,” Paine said. “It was a privilege to serve Ak-Chin and Gila River, and I don’t think I would have gotten those two jobs in Arizona without the knowledge that I gained through tribal law courses at KU.”
Regardless of the practice area, some challenges and opportunities in litigation are universal. Rising caseloads present a difficult juggling act, Paine said. And evolving demographics have altered courtroom presentation. As more millennials enter the jury pool, Paine said, expectations for audio or video components at trial have increased.
“We use a lot of technology in the courtroom during our opening statements, when witnesses are testifying and during closing arguments,” he said. “You kind of appeal to jurors, all of their senses.”
In that regard, Paine likens his role to that of a play director.
“I enjoy trying to orchestrate everything,” he said. “As a trial lawyer, it is kind of like putting on a play for the jury. You have to determine who your best actors are in terms of your witnesses and make sure that they’re prepared. You have to make sure you’re calling witnesses to prove various elements of your case. You have to select the best photos.”
These skills were crucial during a case in which a mother lost a second child to an impaired driver. Through Paine’s careful orchestration of witnesses and evidence, the defendant was convicted and will “likely spend the rest of his life in prison.”
“I can’t even imagine the pain that she went through having lost one daughter to a drunk driver, but then she lost another child to a drunk driver,” Paine said. “It was devastating for the family to go through that process again.”
Throughout all the roles Paine has held, his favorite part of prosecution is holding defendants accountable for their actions.
“It’s challenging and it takes a lot of time, but I do enjoy that aspect of it,” Paine said. “I am pleased when I am able to get at least a measure of justice.”
Student ends law school with unparalleled prosecution experience
When I started at KU Law as a summer starter in 2016, my goal was to follow the accelerated track. If I played my cards right and took a sufficient number of credit hours per semester, I could graduate in two years. The task seemed daunting, but as my last summer as a law student approached, I found myself in the perfect position: six hours of credit needed to graduate, and six hours of credit to be provided by participating in KU Law’s Field Placement Program.
During my time in law school, my interests had evolved and I found myself strongly pulled toward a career in prosecution. Most of this desire was based upon the work I did prior to law school. I had been a legal secretary for a Beloit law firm that provided services ranging from estate planning to criminal defense. I worked with Mitchell County Attorney Mark Noah, whom I grew to respect and admire for the work he did in our area.
Thus, it seemed that the stars had truly aligned when my fiancé agreed to move back to my hometown, Mr. Noah agreed to be my field placement supervisor and mentor for the summer, and Professor Suzanne Valdez (supervisor of the Prosecution Field Placement Program) approved the match. Excited as I was, at that time I would have been shocked to learn what my new position had in store for me.
About a month into my field placement experience, an investigation team led by Mitchell County’s sheriff and police chief began reviewing the cold-case murder of 51-year-old Carol Fleming. Ms. Fleming had been a pillar of the community, and her 2003 death shook small-town folk for miles around. This sort of thing just doesn’t happen in our area — a place where people feel safe leaving their doors unlocked at night and their cars running when they duck into the bank.
Now, 15 years later, a review of the case uncovered enough evidence to make an arrest. The suspect? Ms. Fleming’s son, Charles Fleming, now 46 years old and living in Johnson County. The media uproar over his arrest surpassed the attention the crime originally received, with articles published by People.com and news outlets in Kansas City, Wichita and throughout the state. Our office phone was ringing off the hook with journalists attempting to prod us for bits of new information.
The case is still in the pre-trial stage, so I can’t divulge details about evidence or prosecution strategy. But I can share the amazing experience I gained as an intern.
Communicated one-on-one with the county attorney, chief of police and sheriff regarding details of the case, potential suspects and alibis, and possible strategies and defenses.
Facilitated communication with Kansas Bureau of Investigation laboratories.
Participated in the defendant’s first appearance.
Prepared subpoenas for potential future inquisitions.
Compiled the considerable amount of discovery for opposing counsel.
Prepared jury instructions.
As the case progresses, I will likely assist with preparation and research for pre-trial motions and organization of a preliminary hearing notebook.
Perhaps the greatest part of this field placement opportunity is that it has turned into a permanent position for me with the Mitchell County Attorney’s Office, where I am able to continue work on this case and many others, as well as receive advice from my mentor regarding my future.
To say I ended my time at KU Law on a good note would be an understatement. The vast experience and knowledge I have acquired through my field placement is underscored by the sense of pride I have in helping bring justice that may begin to heal the hurt wrought upon Ms. Fleming’s family and the community as a whole.
