A new calling

Bryce Langford, L’16

Langford Family

The Langford family gathered at Broken Arrow park for Fun Day, a KU Law tradition resurrected in 2013.

For Bryce Langford, pursuing a law degree meant giving up the family business.

“I worked as a pastor for eight years,” Langford said. “My wife’s parents and my parents and grandparents were pastors. For us as third-generation pastors, it was kind of the family business.”

Langford wasn’t unhappy as a pastor, but he sought something different. Through his ministry, he worked with immigrants and refugees, witnessing firsthand the life-changing work that lawyers do for those escaping hardship and instability.

“I saw how lawyers were able to help these amazing people get legal residency in the U.S.,” Langford said. “This is one of the reasons I moved from being a pastor to an attorney.”

Together, Langford and his wife left their jobs at a church, said goodbye to family and friends in Texas, and moved with their three children to Lawrence to embark on a new career path. The early days brought much adjustment, as Langford struggled to balance family time with the demands of school. He persevered by remembering that he was pursuing his degree for his family, not for a particular rank or GPA. He also embraced new friends and a strong community at KU Law.

Langford’s most memorable law school experience was serving as editor-in-chief of the Kansas Law Review. “It has been the most challenging but fun experience I’ve had at Green Hall,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the friendships I have gained through the Law Review.”

Langford will work as a litigation associate for the Kansas City law firm of Stinson Leonard Street after graduation. “The firm does a lot of pro bono work with refugees and immigrants, and I will get the opportunity to work with these clients,” he said. “I am very excited about that.”

Though he’s pursuing a different career path now, Langford feels that his background in ministry helped prepare him for law school. “I think it helped me get along with people,” he said. “Law school can be competitive. I tried to be kind to everyone. I didn’t always succeed, and I made many mistakes. But I hope that being a former pastor made me kinder and more empathetic to my classmates.”

— This post is the second in a series profiling a select few among the many outstanding members of the KU Law Class of 2016. Read Grecia Perez and Jacque Patton’s profile.

 

Sisters in law

Jacque Patton & Grecia Perez, L’16

From left: Grecia Perez, L'16, and Jacque Patton, L'16

Grecia Perez (left) and Jacque Patton, L’16

For many, the friendships born in Green Hall last long past graduation. But some students gain more than study partners, becoming roommates, colleagues and lifelong friends.

Class of 2016 members Jacque Patton and Grecia Perez plan to move to California’s Bay Area after graduation to launch their legal careers together. The pair took different paths to KU Law — Patton a Kansas native who embarked upon law school straight after earning her undergraduate degree at KU, Perez a Californian who went to college in Los Angeles and worked for six years before law school.

“I knew who Grecia was my 1L year and thought she was intimidating — in a good way,” Patton said. The women bonded through a love of food, music, politics and feminism.

Both women faced an adjustment process as they adapted to the rigors of law school. Patton let go of the need to compare herself to others in a competitive academic environment, while Perez learned that balance was essential to keep her academic aspirations in line with her personal ones. To blow off steam, the duo screened “Sex and the City” marathons during study breaks.

“We analyzed the characters’ experiences through the lens of what it’s like to be women in the legal field — a field that is mostly dominated by men,” Perez said. “We do this often: take something happening in the legal field, politics or pop culture, and analyze through lenses of feminism, social justice and more.”

“We don’t agree on everything,” Patton said. “And we always challenge each other — something that might make it seem like we’re fighting to others around us, when really we are making each other better advocates.”

Patton and Perez brought that spirit of advocacy and justice to their legal educations. Patton served as President of Law Students for Reproductive Justice and interned with Kansas Appleseed, working to create legislation to help undocumented immigrants obtain drivers licenses. She plans to leverage that experience to launch a career in the public sector. Perez served as Student Bar Association President and interns at the district attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas. She is pursuing a career as a prosecutor.

After wrapping up finals and graduation festivities, the friends plan to spend the summer studying for the California bar, then fly out to take the exam in July.

While their close friendship may seem unconventional to some, for Patton and Perez it’s been a key to their success in law school.

“We are each other’s sounding boards,” Patton said. “We bounce ideas off each other, help each other study, and when we combine forces, we are capable of doing a great deal.”

“We get a lot of jokes about being a couple, most of them made by us,” Perez said. “It is difficult for people to understand how two heterosexual women can be so close. The sad reality is that women are taught to be competitors instead of sisters, and that’s the best way we could define our friendship: a sisterhood.”

— This post is the first in a series profiling a select few among the many outstanding members of the KU Law Class of 2016.

Law student, veteran named finalist in prestigious federal leadership program

kevin-anderson-blog

With an eye toward a career in public service, 2016 graduate Kevin Anderson weighs multiple employment opportunities

A University of Kansas law student with a history of military service has been named a finalist in one of the nation’s most competitive fellowship programs.

Capt. Kevin Anderson earned the designation of 2016 Presidential Management Fellow Finalist after an intensive application and interview process. More than 6,000 people applied for the fellowship, and less than 10 percent made the final cut.

The PMF program was created by executive order in 1977 to develop potential government leaders. It provides extensive on-the-job leadership and management training to advanced degree candidates through two-year, paid positions at federal agencies. Anderson is set to graduate from KU Law in May 2016 and will have one year to apply for PMF positions.

He is also entertaining offers from the Army, Navy and Air Force JAG Corps, a rare trifecta in a competitive program.

“I’m interested in federal service,” said Anderson, who has remained active in the Army National Guard during law school. “While money is important, it is not my main motivator.”

Anderson hopes to work in the intelligence community supporting national security. His interest in the field began while earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado, respectively. Five years of active duty as a signal officer in the U.S. Army followed, including a 12-month deployment to Iraq, where Anderson was responsible for the health, morale, welfare and training of 67 soldiers.

With the continued draw-down of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Anderson saw diminishing opportunities for future deployments and decided the timing was right to continue his education. He left his post in Hawaii, moved to Kansas and started taking classes at KU Law in 2013.

In addition to his coursework, Anderson has served as a teaching assistant for the Law of War class taught by Professor Mike Hoeflich, whom Anderson considers an invaluable mentor and friend. Anderson also clerked at an Overland Park law firm and worked as a legal intern for U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts. He credits that experience with enhancing his application for the PMF program and the JAG Corps.

“A lot of students interested in the intelligence field don’t take the proactive step of working for a senator or representative,” Anderson said. “I would highly suggest they do that because it opens a lot of doors.”

As Anderson decides which door to walk through next, he’s wrapping up final exams and staying busy as the father of two sons, 5-month-old Calvin and 3-year-old Benjamin. His wife of six years, Jenn Anderson, is associate director of institutional compliance at KU.

“We’re trying to move this country forward,” Anderson said. “Ultimately I would like to run for federal office. You have your sphere of influence in the Department of Defense, but when you get into federal office you can affect change on a national level. Hopefully it will be ‘Vote Anderson 2024.’”

— By Mindie Paget

Graduate’s legacy of activism, service fostered in law school

Rusty Leffel, L'73

Photo courtesy of University Archives

Rusty Leffel arrived on the KU campus as an undergraduate in 1966 and stayed until he finished law school in 1973. In his seven years on the Hill, student life evolved from a social experience to a political one. As a student leader, Leffel helped usher in that change.

“When I first came to KU the student council was based in social groups — fraternities and sororities, living groups,” Leffel said. “I had a substance-based agenda. I stayed at KU Law in part because I had a list of things I believed needed to be done at KU.” Leffel devoted his time in Lawrence to reforming student government, bolstering its impact on the university’s mission. “We declared war on the old way,” Leffel said. “We were dedicated to making student government more issue-oriented.”

As the student body became more active and vocal, unrest surfaced. The Kansas Union was set on fire, and the computer center was bombed. National Guard troops were called in to patrol, and faculty and students spent the night on campus to protect buildings.

“People were mad. We started seeing the Legislature cut funding for KU. As students, we felt we had a stake in this. We needed to express our concern that higher education is important. So we did.”

While some students protested national issues, Leffel and his fellow activists advocated for local initiatives. “Vietnam was not really something the Student Senate could control, so we went back to the people of Kansas,” Leffel said. “What can we do?”

Leffel helped found Students Concerned for Higher Education in Kansas, a group dedicated to getting results through dialogue and cooperation rather than disruption. “We tried to encourage every student group on campus to express their concerns, to express the importance of higher ed individually and to our state,” Leffel said.

KU’s student government responded to the state’s budget cuts by proposing that funds raised from student activity fees cover the shortfall. SCHE mobilized a campus-wide campaign to explore the role of student activity fees in the university’s budget, and the Student Senate measure was narrowly defeated. Gov. Docking vetoed the cuts and funding was restored, an outcome Leffel called “highly successful.”

Years after he graduated, Leffel’s legacy continues. KU still presents the Rusty Leffel Concerned Student Award annually to students committed to furthering the ideals of the university and higher education, a gesture that “humbles” and “overjoys” Leffel.

He credits his legal education with bringing a lawyer’s sensibilities to his activism. “It helps us to understand both sides of an issue — to study, research, present and advocate for all sides of a concern,” Leffel said. “The underpinning of democracy is the ability to argue, discuss and dialogue. Students at KU Law were prepared not just to be lawyers, but to be citizens.”

— A version of this post appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of KU Law Magazine. The issue celebrated the career of Martin Dickinson, KU Law’s longest-serving professor, and included reflections from several of Dickinson’s former students. 

Human trafficking victim starting new life in U.S. with help from KU Law student

No more interviews with the Department of Homeland Security, no more meetings with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, no more facing her traffickers in court. The criminal case was finally closed. Now she was living in a foreign country, away from family and friends, with minimal funds, unable to speak English, and wanted to stay in the U.S. to avoid retaliation from her traffickers. This was the client I was assigned during the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) externship orientation.

hill-henning-72dpiI have never felt so nervous than I did when I left the MLP orientation. And I have never felt so confident and excited about pursing a legal career than I did on my last day at the MLP.

Orientation day for the MLP was the most overwhelming day I’ve experienced during law school. I walked out of the office with a client who had been a victim of human trafficking, a book about T and U visas (something I knew nothing about), and a list of people I had never met with whom I needed to schedule meetings. I had never had a real client, conducted an interview, worked with an interpreter, or written anything more complex than a summary judgment. I felt incredibly unprepared to take on my client’s task and was beyond scared that someone’s future had been placed in my hands.

My one semester in the MLP gave me invaluable practical experience. My first task was a trivial one — make a phone call. But I had to call the U.S. Attorney’s Office to ask for copies of documents filed during the criminal trial of the traffickers. My hands were shaking as I dialed the number. By the end of the semester I was on a first-name basis with my contacts in various government offices. My MLP experience taught me more than just how to do legal research, fill out forms, and write. It taught me how to connect with my client and maintain emotional health, showed me the importance of networking with people who aren’t lawyers, and that legal work is much more complex than class materials ever intimated.

I ended my time with the MLP by turning over an almost 2-inch-tall stack of papers that was my client’s T visa application. It needed one final review and would then be sent off. I walked out of the MLP confident in my work. For the first time during school, I felt like I had accomplished something. That day I was sure I was pursuing the right career.

Ten months later I received a phone call from the MLP office. My client’s T visa had been approved. The gravity of what I had worked on for an entire semester truly came into focus at that moment. I had helped make a real difference for a real person. This was my best day during law school. My MLP experience showed me that true success as a legal advocate is achieved when your client succeeds.

— Monica Hill Henning is a third-year KU Law student from Kingman, Kansas. She is set to graduate in May 2016.

Top Five Law School Myths

Sarah McMillin-Beckman and friends

Sarah McMillin-Beckman, far right, gathers with classmates at Women in Law’s annual Pub Night Gala.

Myth # 1: You won’t have time to have a social life in law school.

While I spent more time in the law library this year than I ever thought possible, I’ve still had plenty of time for other activities. Which is good because there are lots of opportunities to get involved at KU. There are 28 student organizations at the law school alone, and over 600 campus-wide. There are also plenty of social events such as Barrister’s Ball (Law Prom), Pub Night and TGITs.

Myth # 2:  Everyone at KU will be from Kansas, and everyone will stay in Kansas after graduating.

I love Kansas. But after growing up near Fort Riley, an Army base, I recognize the immense value in having a student body that has a diverse set of experiences. At KU, the Class of 2018 includes students from 25 states and three foreign countries.

While KU does an excellent job placing students in regional jobs, the school also has a large network of dedicated alumni working outside of Kansas who offer invaluable assistance to students hoping to travel with their degree.

Myth # 3: Professors will teach “the law.”

When I came to law school, I expected to learn black-letter law by listening to lecturing professors. But instead of rote memorization of cases and statutes, law school has been more about actively learning how to “think like a lawyer.” Instead of focusing exclusively on legal theory, there are plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning while still in school. The school offers several workshops and twelve clinics, where students can earn school credits by improving practical skills.

Myth # 4:  If you want to go to law school, you have to major in Political Science or Philosophy.

There is no major that will perfectly prepare you for law school. Focus on taking classes that will advance writing and critical thinking skills. At KU, there are a wide variety of college majors represented. As someone who received degrees in Political Science and History, it’s refreshing to take classes with students who bring many unique perspectives.

Myth # 5:  School rank is the most important factor when deciding which law school to attend.

Law school experiences are difficult to quantify. While national ranking systems can be a helpful tool, they shouldn’t be the only thing you consider. For some ranking systems, cost of attendance makes up only 15% of the overall score. For me, cost was incredibly important, because I didn’t want to graduate with a level of debt so high that it would determine my entire career path.

There were also plenty of factors that were important to me but impossible to assign a numerical value. I wanted professors who were accessible, a career service office that would invest time in getting to know each student, and an environment where students were collegial and welcoming. Visiting the law school made it clear that KU was the best fit for me.

— Sarah McMillin-Beckman is a 1L and KU Law Student Ambassador from Junction City, Kansas.