THE VOLUME 43, NUMBER 1 Formerly “The Circuit Rider” WASHBURN 32 48 27 Reunion Weekend Giving Stories Court SwearingIn U.S. Supreme Employment Alternative IN THIS Lawyer Lawyer ISSUE : WINTER 2005 Table of Contents I Copyright 2005, by the FEATURES: Washburn University School of Law. All rights reserved. A Different Kind of View From the Bench . 4 - 9 – by The Honorable J. Thomas Marten Washburn Alumni “Profiles” . 10 - 18 The Washburn Lawyer is published Recent Grads on the Move . 20 - 21 semiannually by The Washburn Planned Giving - Larry K. Meeker ‘67 . 22 Law School Association. A Centennial Celebration– Giving Back . 25 - 27 Editorial Office: C/O Washburn Leading By Example – Recent Endowments . 28 University School of Law, United States Supreme Court Swearing In . 30 - 31 Alumni Relations Office, Classroom Dedication . 32 - 34 1700 SW College Avenue, Reunion Weekend . 48 - 49 Topeka, KS 66621. DEPARTMENTS: We welcome your responses to this publication. Write to: Letter from the Dean . 3 Editor: The Washburn Lawyer Close-Up Washburn University Robert Hartsook ‘79 - Alumni . 35 School of Law Professor Robert Rhee - Faculty . 36 Alumni Relations Office Judy Jewsome ‘07 - Student . 37 1700 SW College Avenue Signature Programs Topeka, KS 66621 Center for Excellence in Advocacy . 38 - 39 Business and Transactional Law Center . 40 - 41 Or send E-mail to: Children and Family Law Center . 42 - 43 [email protected] Washburn Law Clinic . 44 - 45 In Memoriam . 46 - 47 Please visit the News & Events . 50 - 61 Washburn University School of Law Class Actions . 62 - 66 website at: Events Calendar . 68 http://www.washburnlaw.edu I 2 Fall/Winter 2004 From the DEAN Dear Alumni and Friends, Dean Dennis R. Honabach It is difficult to believe we are already midway through another academic year. But we are, and I am happy to report all is going well – indeed, exceptionally well! The members of the fall entering class may well be among the most talented, most diverse, most hard working entering students we have enrolled in several years. These students hail from more than thirty-two states and six countries. They bring with them a wide range of talents and interests. This class continues the trend of increasing academic qualifications that has marked the most recent entering classes. My colleagues who have taught them have noted both their high quality and their enthusiasm. And the quality of our student body is not limited to the incoming class. Our second and third year students continue to thrive as well. The success of our Trial Teams at the ATLA regional competition in Denver, where they finished first and second out of sixteen teams from twelve schools, is but one piece of evidence of just how talented our upper class students are. You can be confident that graduates of our law school will be well qualified and prepared to advance the great Washburn Law tradition. It is important to recognize, however, not all Washburn Law graduates make their career in the traditional practice of law. Indeed, the Washburn Law tradition comprises more than stellar litigators, accomplished transactional lawyers and jurists. Indeed, many of our alumni have gone on to careers not traditionally associated with law school graduates. In this issue of The Washburn Lawyer we highlight the range of those careers by sharing with you the histories of some of our graduates. I know you will find reading about their careers informative and interesting. Let me close by reminding you that the renovation of the classrooms is completed. The rooms look grand! They provide a professional ambiance that matches the long-standing quality of our program. I do hope that you will stop by to take a look at them! When you do visit, why not take the time to also meet with some of our students to discuss your insights on the profession and the practice of law? The “Lunch & Learn” programs are a crucial part of the programming in our Advocacy, Business & Transactional Law, and Family Law Centers. In the Lunch & Learn Program, we try to bring our alumni on campus to have lunch with a handful of students. We are confident that a considerable amount of learning goes on during those events. I invite you to join us for one. Lunch is on us! I am looking forward to seeing many of you at an upcoming alumni event or at the KBA meeting in Vail in June. Sincerely, Dennis R. Honabach Dean 3 The Washburn Lawyer Washburn Law School Association Board of Governors t every single moment I of Aone’s life one is what one is D. Duke Dupre, President ‘73 Steven G. Cooper, President-Elect ‘73 going to be no less than what Stephen W. Cavanaugh, Vice President ‘80 David E. Pierce, Secretary Treasurer ‘77 one has been. Linda D. Henry Elrod, Executive Secretary ‘72 Bernard A. Bianchino, Past President ‘74 – Oscar Wilde, De Profundis H. Allan Caldwell, Foundation President ‘73 Lillian A. Apodaca ‘85 Rita J. Bicknell ‘95 Hon. J. Patrick Brazil ‘62 William D. Bunten ‘56 The Hon. Nancy Landis Caplinger ‘85 Bart A. Chavez ‘85 H. Philip Elwood ‘71 Stewart L. Entz ‘65 David A. Fenley ‘79 Carol G. Green ‘81 Matthew C. Hesse ‘85 Winton M. Hinkle ‘68 Paul R. Hoferer ‘75 Jane Chandler Holt ‘85 Laura L. Ice ‘84 Terry L. Kramer ‘68 Ward E. Loyd ‘68 Shoko K. Sevart ‘73 Sabrina K. Standifer ‘99 Stephen J. Torline ‘97 Hon. Gregory L. Waller ‘73 Roger W. Warren ‘88 Teri Wilford Wood ‘78 I 4 Fall/Winter 2004 several years ago, I wrote a piece S for the Bar-O-Meter, the Wichita Bar Association’s excellent month- ly newsletter, entitled “A Different Kind of View from the Bench.” Lawyer so beautifully establishes, a legal The column was directed toward education can expand career possibilities practicing lawyers who were exponentially. And as you will see in the experiencing little or no joy in pages that follow, true success frequently their work, encouraging them to follows passionate interest. look at other possibilities holding To a large extent, this piece is a rework more promise for finding fulfill- of the Bar-O-Meter column. It may be ment. As this issue of The Washburn shorter; with each day that passes I know less than I did, but the theme is the same. The world is filled with opportunities for those who A Different Kind are open to them, for those who either find or create a of View From different path. The profiles which follow are particularly timely. I the Bench sense not only a growing discontent, but frustration and despair with the state of the practice among too many mem- I by The Honorable J. Thomas Marten ‘76 bers of the practicing bar. Some see United States District Court it as an institutional problem which we must address as a profession, but as is the case with so many of our issues, insti- tutional problems affect one person at a time and an institutional answer rarely helps any individual. Or as Tom Robbins notes in Still Life With Woodpecker, “Equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently.” So be it. And some individ- ual encouragement to our brothers and sisters is appropriate. 5 The Washburn Lawyer A Different Kind of View From the Bench While there are several causes for the How could anyone buy into that non- level of professional dissatisfaction, my sense for a moment? To seek happiness personal candidate for the chief cause is in your work is not only not failure; it is that too many lawyers are square pegs the necessary first step to professional trying to fit into round holes. In other fulfillment. And to find that happiness, words, there are a lot of lawyers who: 1) wherever it may be, is the absolute pin- went to law school because they did not nacle of success. know what they wanted to do with their lives at that particular point; 2) recog- Some of us have found a stimulating and nized law is an honorable and noble pro- satisfying niche within the legal profes- fession carrying a certain prestige sion. Most judges I visit with feel (notwithstanding public opinion polls) blessed in their positions. I wish every coupled with the prospect of making a member of the practicing bar generally comfortable living; 3) spent three or could find the same level of contentment more years studying, thousands of dol- in her or his work. lars on tuition and books, and experi- enced the agony of taking a bar examina- I do not want to overstate the case, but tion; 4) feel that he or she must take a far too many practitioners receive little or place in the profession as a result of this no daily nourishment from the practice investment of time, energy and money; of law. In fact, they find it depletes their and 5) feel that to seek work unrelated to ability to find joy from other sources, law initially or after finding out he or she placing a serious strain on family rela- is simply miserable in a legal position is tionships and friendships. There certain- worse than a waste of that education — ly are easier, less stressful ways of earn- it is failure. These folks feel that they ing the typical lawyer’s living. Yet these are locked into lifestyles that cannot be good people, these hard-working souls downsized without a loss of face, have persevere, hoping against hope that financial commitments that require a cer- something will happen that makes the tain level of income only a successful law practice bearable, if not pleasant.