Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
As we enter the holiday season, we have so much to be thankful for at UMKC Law. This starts with our community. In reading my highlights below, I am sure you will agree with me that our community—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—fosters our tradition of excellence. I wish you all a happy holiday season.
Thankful for our faculty. My faculty colleagues continue to amaze. For example, the ABA recently honored Dean Emerita and Professor Barbara Glesner Fines with the prestigious Difference Maker Award. The Tap In Center, a project co-founded by Associate Professor Pat Brayer, cleared over 400 warrants just since July 2023.
Thankful for leaders visiting our school. We were honored to host Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas at the law school recently to discuss a career in public service with the students. It was also a true pleasure to host Kansas Attorney General (ret.) and former Kansas gubernatorial candidate, Derek Schmidt, who discussed with the students the challenge of being a lawyer in elected office.
Thankful for our students. I love introducing our students to our community leaders. They are a hardworking and bright cohort. Indeed, our mock trial teams continue to set the standard with yet another national tournament finalist showing! This is not to say they don’t have a bit of fun, too. The Latino Law Student Association sponsored free paletas, in which I happily indulged. And we hosted our inaugural law-themed Halloween costume contest. I came as administrative law.
Thankful for our outstanding staff leaders. Our staff plays such an important role in these student successes. Take Desiree Rognlie for example, our pro bono honors coordinator and assistant director of career services. Last year, with her leadership, our law students completed more than 10,000 hours of pro bono work! And it doesn’t stop with just our students in law school. Bree Boger, our director of admissions, recently presented at the Wyandotte County Courthouse for Law Day with the Kansas Bar Association Diversity Committee and Awesome Ambitions. The event welcomed middle and high-school-aged women from the Kansas City metro area to learn more about the law profession and engage in a law simulation.
Thankful for our diverse community. Nurturing our diverse community means so much more than recruiting. It means supporting our entire community while they are students and as they enter the profession. We were thrilled, as such, to support the UMKC-wide Pride Breakfast. And it was a high honor to announce the new Christian Lee Honea Scholarship, which supports military veterans at UMKC Law.
Thankful for our alumni leaders. As these students enter the profession, our UMKC alumni naturally become leaders. For example, Brice Barnard, Lauren Dollar, and Sam Sherman were just named to the Missouri Bar Young Lawyers Council. Rory Akers was recognized by Women We Admire as a Top 50 Women Leaders of Missouri. Our Sixteenth Circuit judicial alumni hosted me for an outstanding conversation about mentoring our new graduates at the Eastern Jackson County Courthouse. And we had a wonderful day in Joplin, visiting with our graduates and friends.
Thankful for our national reputation for excellence. With alumni like these, we can readily understand the strength of our national reputation. Indeed, the ABA Solo, Small Firm, and General Practice Division chose to host its annual conference with us last month. And our new bar-prep plan, which comes at no additional costs beyond tuition and fees, garnered a lot of national press, including in Law.com. You can learn more about this game-changing program here.
Warmest regards,
Lumen “Lou” Mulligan
Dean and Professor of Law
There is so much to look forward to this new semester at UMKC Law! Get out your calendar and send in your RSVPs for some exciting opportunities to celebrate our community.
Our students are planning exciting events such as Family Law Trivia on February 17th and the Diversity Banquet on March 2nd. The students will appreciate your support and the events are both wonderful opportunities for fellowship and fun!
Our annual alumni event The Big Event will be February 25th and we are so very excited to be back at the Indian Hills Country Club. We have six outstanding award winners to celebrate! (Read more below) Registration closes February 11th so RSVP today!
But wait! There’s more! The UMKC Alumni Association also recognizes alumni from across campus with its award ceremony, this year to be held March 10th and again this year, Law Roos will take top billing in the awards. This year’s UMKC Alumnus of the Year is Professor Sean O’Brien (JD '80) and the UMKC Legacy Award again this year is headed by Law Roos: The Accurso Family. The UMKC School of Law Alumnus of the Year is Scott Bethune (JD '88). In addition, the spotlight award goes to Professor Bruce Bubacz, who has had a joint appointment with the law school and the philosophy department. To purchase tickets click here.
Professor Bubacz is providing the important service this year to the law school by chairing the Dean Search committee. (That process is moving along nicely, by the way, with semi-finalist interviews underway. Watch for more news soon!).
UMKC Law School is indeed fortunate to be able to count these extraordinary lawyers and leaders as Law Roos. Please join me in congratulating each of them and be sure to get your tickets to the events celebrating these accomplishments and our community.
Professor Bubacz is providing the important service this year to the law school by chairing the Dean Search committee. (That process is moving along nicely, by the way, with semi-finalist interviews underway. Watch for more news soon!)
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
As I am wrapping up my tenure as Dean here at the UMKC and looking forward to returning to the faculty, I am excited by the new faculty colleagues joining us. This fall we successfully concluded searches for four faculty, two librarians, and a faculty fellow and we aren’t done yet!
Joining us in the fall will be a corporate law professor (stepping in after the retirement of Clinical Professor Judith Frame)
And there is more to come! The Law School will be recruiting teaching fellows this spring in our Advocacy program and in the Child & Family Services Clinic. With the leadership of Professor Tony Luppino, we have received a five-year Kauffman Foundation grant to support the hiring of an assistant clinical professor in business and entrepreneurship. Additionally, we are always searching for additional fellows for the Truman Fellow Tenant Eviction Program. Please let us know if you have potential candidates for any of these roles!
Finally, we are in the home stretch of our dean search, with four candidates visiting campus in the coming weeks. Having had the privilege of serving in this role, I must admit some nervousness in passing on the honor and responsibility of stewardship of this community that I love. I am thrilled by the interest that has been shown in the position by highly qualified candidates and look forward to working with whomever is selected as I return to the full-time faculty.
It is with great honor and excitement that the Diverse Student Coalition welcomes Judge Mary H. Murguia as our keynote speaker at this year’s Annual Diversity Banquet on March 2, 2023. Judge Murguia is the Chief U.S. Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. As a daughter of Mexican immigrants, Judge Murguia is the first judge of Hispanic descent to serve as Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit and the second woman to hold this prestigious position. Judge Murguia embodies what the Diverse Student Coalition seeks to establish: empowerment through diversity! Please visit our website for ticket and banquet information.
Learn More and Purchase Tickets to the Diversty Banquet
The UMKC Alumni Awards for 2023 were announced and the law school was well represented Professor Sean O’Brien (J.D. ’80) Alumnus of the Year; The Accurso Family, Legacy Award; Scott Bethune (J.D. ’88) Law Achievement Award; and Professor Bruce Bubacz, Philosophy and Law - Spotlight Award.
Come celebrate our law alumni at the UMKC Alumni Awards is Friday March 10 at Plexpod Westport Commons. The reception will begin at 5 p.m. and the program is at 6:30.
Learn More and Purchase Tickets to the Alumni Awards
Come join us at the Diverse Alumni Social on Tuesday, April 18, at Tower Tavern, 401 E. 31st St., Kansas City, MO from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. There will be appetizers and beverages provided. Please RSVP
RSVP For The Spring Social
Don’t miss the 27th Annual Professor Bob Downs Scholarship Golf Tournament on Friday, May 19, at Ironhorse Golf Club (15400 Mission Rd., Leawood, KS 66224). Sponsorships are available! Registration is $125 per golfer and includes a tournament t-shirt, cart and greens fees. Complimentary beverages and lunch will also be provided. Your law firm can participate in the Law Firm Challenge, with the grand prize of the coveted traveling trophy. The 2022 winner, Shook Hardy & Bacon will be defending their title in 2023!
Downs Golf Tournament Sponsor and Registration Information
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Do you remember the law school experience of working hard on a paper and then waiting anxiously to see if your work met the standard? That’s been the Law School’s experience over the past three years. Last spring, after two years of work and preparation, the School of Law submitted its accreditation report to the American Bar Association.
The report itself took 46 pages with over 20,000 words, plus 177 files of attachments with everything from faculty policies and meeting minutes to mountains of data. In addition, to help the site visit team review our teaching, we collected 98 files of student ratings of faculty instruction and 1785 files of faculty syllabi, exams, and other examples of teaching. The effort required hundreds of hours of administration, faculty, and staff time.
Everyone played a role. The University’s Chancellor, Provost, Vice Chancellor, and Legal Counsel provided important data, strong reassurances of their support for the law school, and the financial backing to demonstrate that support. Every faculty member worked individually to review their course syllabi and teaching materials and prepare complete and up-to-date CVs. Collectively the collected data, updated policies and bylaws, and reviewed countless drafts. (Can you imagine what goes into getting the consensus of an entire faculty to a written document?) Students provided feedback and put their best foot forward when the site visit team arrived to show them how well connected, we are as a community. Our staff collected the mountains of files (electronic and paper) and data necessary for reports, built organizational systems, set up schedules, reserved rooms, and otherwise kept the entire system moving. Custodial staff gave the building a thorough once over (we even got our windows washed!).
The site visit team spent three days visiting in March of last year, meeting with nearly every faculty member and visiting classes from morning to night. Their visit was followed by requests for yet more reports and data. Finally, the ABA Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar met in February 2023 to review the school’s reports.
On March 9th, we received word that the Council had concluded that the School of Law demonstrate that it complied with all accreditation standards. In other words, we passed with flying colors! The accreditation cycle is about every ten years, so this monumental effort will not be required again until 2033; however, the School of Law is always continually searching for ways to improve the education and service it provides to our community. Ultimately, the report card from the ABA is simply where we begin. It is the report card from you, our alumni and friends, that tells us truly whether we are meeting our goals. We always welcome your input, ideas, and contributions.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
When I talk with alumni about their law school experience, the story I hear most often is about a faculty member who made a difference in their education or career or life. Our faculty are not only great teachers and scholars, but they are also great people. They care about our students and our community and go above and beyond every day to make a difference.
Permit me to give a shout out to two of our stars in particular:
First, Sean O’Brien, a UMKC Law alumnus from the class of 1980, was recognized by the university and UMKC Alumni Association as the 2023 UMKC Alumnus of the Year. In his remarks at the event honoring the award winners, Sean spoke not only about the clients he had served and the attorneys with whom he had worked, he reserved his closing remarks for his students. He observed that the next generation of lawyers have the same kind of passion for their causes as the generations that came before, but that they operate with a much larger capacity for unconditional love in the work that they do. “The kids are alright” was his message. What he did not say, but what is obvious to all of us who work with him, is that it is he models that attitude for students. Sean has regularly taught (without additional compensation) overload classes in order to fill out the curriculum, spent hundreds of hours mentoring students into careers and gives students opportunities for practice that make law school transformational.
Another faculty member who shares this same commitment and devotion to our students is Professor Julie Cheslik. The generations of students who have learned property law, land use law, or estates and trusts under her tutelage will attest to her mastery of the art of teaching. Julie is the rare professor who can balance high expectations with significant individual support. Like Sean, her “timesheet” contains an abundance of overtime. During the pandemic, for example, when classes went online, she taught three sections of her classes: one for students who wanted in-person learning, one for students who needed to attend online and a third series of make-up classes for students who had absences! Julie’s care for students led her this semester to make an extraordinary contribution to their education by creating a new two million dollar endowed scholarship that will provide one student each year with a full-tuition scholarship. The Prof. Julie M. Cheslik Merit Scholarship was announced at our annual Donor-Scholar Reception this past Thursday evening and will impact our ability to recruit outstanding students for decades to come.
Sean and Julie are just two examples. All our faculty have this kind of personal commitment to our students and their education. Nothing makes a teacher happier than to have a former student send a note or make a visit to catch up. Reach out to your favorite professor today!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
It’s my privilege to serve as your new dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. As a Kansas City native with years of teaching, administrative, and practice experience, it truly is an honor to join this team. My first official day on the job was July 10th and so much is happening already that I want to share with you.
But first, I wish to thank Dean Barbara Glesner Fines. She has led our law school with dedication, skill, and devotion for seven years. In that time, the law school navigated COVID-19, added a new center, instructed hundreds of amazing students, recruited top professors, raised millions of dollars, and so much more. Thank you, Dean Glesner Fines, for all you have done and continue to do for UMKC School of Law. I also wish to thank the faculty, staff, students, and the alumni for the warm welcome I have received.
There has been no shortage of excitement this summer at the UMKC School of Law:
96.6% employment. The data is in! Our 2022 class, the most recent available data, has a 96.6% employment rate. Congratulations class of 2022 and to our Career Services Team. Also, let me pass along a hearty thank you to all our alumni and friends who made the wise choice to hire a 2022 UMKC law grad. And, if you’re looking for a UMKC ’23 law grad, move quickly! Employers are snatching them up fast.
Tech-Savvy UMKC School of Law Students. One of the many reasons employers are after UMKC law grads is that they are practice ready and tech savvy. Check out Caroline Schumann, J.D. ’23, who was featured in this recent story discussing her research, and use of, AI tools in the law.
Preparing for the bar. Our bar takers are wrapping up their last week of bar prep. We are all appreciative of the exam survival bags provided by the alumni association which were a big hit, as always. Also, a special thanks to our alumni bar-essay grading volunteers. Best of luck to all our graduates taking the July bar exam.
Recruiting the best. Our UMKC School of Law Admissions Team and I hit the ground running this July, engaging with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Student for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina opinion. UMKC School of Law remains committed to embracing the rule of law, as explicated by the Court, and empowering our diverse community.
Engaging in the community. UMKC School of Law and the UMKC School of Humanities and Social Sciences had the pleasure of co-hosting top KC-area high schoolers for a mock trial camp this summer. Thanks to Judge Stephen Bough, J.D. ’97, for working with these students (and I was lucky enough to visit with them as well). We’re excited to see all these young folks at the UMKC School of Law in a few years.
Faculty Excellence. When our new class joins us this fall, they will learn from the best. Space disciplines me to highlight just two of my outstanding faculty colleagues here. Congratulations to Associate Professor Ryan Copus, who was honored with this year’s Brenner Award for his paper, An Algorithmic Assessment of Parole Decisions, co-authored with Hannah S. Laqueur. Congratulations are also due to Associate Dean Mikah Thompson, who was honored with the Marvin Lewis Rich Faculty Scholar Award for the body of her research to date. Dean Thompson’s research focuses on identifying, analyzing, and remedying systemic racism within the legal system.
$1 Million for Advocacy. I am pleased to report that we have nearly met our $1 million goal to support advocacy students and competitions. Thank you to our leading advocacy champions, Davis, Bethune & Jones, Langdon & Emison, and the Accurso Law Firm—and the many other alumni-led firms and foundations who supported this campaign. You can see a listing of contributors below. You can help us cross the finish line by making a gift today.
In closing, thank you for your engagement and support of our law school. I look forward to meeting you very soon.
Warmest regards,
Lumen N. Mulligan
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
We are up and running for a new school year. We welcomed the fall starters for the class of 2026 in August. They will be instructed by our outstanding full-time faculty, who continued to rack up awards over the summer. And next year, these current 1Ls will benefit from our rich ranks of alumni adjunct faculty and stellar librarians. With the bar exam in the rearview mirror, our class of 2023 is transitioning to their new careers. (It’s still not too late to hire an outstanding ’23 grad, contact career services today!) And we continued our partnership with the ABA Family Law Section this summer. I look forward to seeing you all this September at the Missouri Bar Annual Meeting in Kansas City for our September 13, 5:00 pm RSVP reception or our September 15 luncheon.
Meet the Class of 2026. With our fall starters joining us in August, our class of 2026 is fully formed. We are proud to add 139 1Ls to our student body as well as several new LLM students. The JD class is 49% women, 19% identifying as persons of color, 29% first-generation college students, 10% identifying as LGBTQIA+ people, and 4% identifying as veterans or active-duty military personnel. These students join us from 18 states and three countries. This cohort is strongly credentialed as well, with improved undergraduate GPAs across the board and our top quartile LSAT score moved up to a 158. Our fantastic admissions staff and admissions committee managed this feat despite applications being down nationwide. Thank you to our admissions team of Bree Boger, Bethany Harris, and Meghann Ashey! And welcome to all our new students.
Faculty Excellence. I am excited to share some recent faculty highlights with you. • Congratulations to Professor Christopher Hoyt, who was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® as the Kansas City 2024 "Lawyer of the Year" award recipient in two fields of law: Tax Law and Trusts and Estates Law https://www.bestlawyers.com/. • Congratulations to Professor Tony Luppino, who was awarded the MetroLab’s inaugural Anthony Luppino Award in July. • And Congratulations to Professor Emerita Mary Kathryn O'Malley, who was awarded the 2023 Roger P. Crumb Family Law Award by the Missouri Bar Family Law Section in August.
Engaged Alumni. Speaking of faculty, our school is made infinitely greater by the contribution of our adjunct faculty, most of whom are our alumni. Read more about the many contributions they make. Thank you all for teaching with us!
Library Bestsellers. And our librarians are not about to be outdone by our other faculty. Julia Pluta hit the national scene in Boston last month at the American Association of Law Libraries.
Launching New Careers. Our 2023 graduates, with the bar exam behind them, are off to their new careers. You’ll find our UMKC Law graduates working in every industry, including supporting agri-business. Check out Daniel Foose’s (JD ’23) story.
National Reach. We had a great time hosting the American Bar Association’s 35th Annual Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute at the end of July. Scores of attorneys from across the nation joined us for an intensive multi-day event. We look forward to seeing them all again next summer.
Warmest regards,
Lumen N. Mulligan
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
We have so much to share with you as we begin our fall. To highlight just a few things: We are thrilled to announce that as of December 2023 all J.D. graduates will have a commercial bar prep plan provided to them at no cost beyond tuition and fees! As if that was not enough, our clinics are progressing full steam ahead supplying incredible experiences for our students and providing thousands of hours of pro bono services for our community. Further, we are pleased to welcome Scott Aripoli, (J.D. ‘07), as the new president of the Law Foundation’s board, and Ashley Grace (J.D. ‘14) as the new president of the Law Alumni Association board which highlights the essential role that alumni play in the life of our school. And we continue to engage our students with leaders in the legal community as a key part of their law school experience. Thank you for all you do to support UMKC Law.
Bar Prep’s Included! At UMKC Law, we have bar prep covered. As of December 2023, all UMKC Law J.D. graduates are enrolled in Helix Bar Review, a premier online bar prep program, as part of their tuition and fees! And all UMKC Law J.D. graduates will be in enrolled in the UMKC in-person bar review program as part of their tuition and fees! These days, bar prep classes cost graduates around $4,000, and the vast majority of our graduates do not have firms picking up that tab. That’s why we believe our new program is a game changer. You can learn more about our program here. As you might imagine, bringing this program to our students requires substantial resources. Please support this bar-prep program with your gift.
Clinics Changing Lives. UMKC Law has a proud traditional of clinical legal education. Providing our students with hands-on training is a hallmark of our school … and one of the many reasons why you should hire our grads. Equally as important to this educational mission, all of our clinics change lives for the better for members of our community. Whether it is starting a business, escaping a wrongful conviction, resolving a tax dispute, and so much more, our UMKC Law Clinics are making an incredible impact. Learn more about how our Expungement Clinic assists Missourians to get back into the workforce and live on their own here.
Alumni’s Key Role. Congratulations to Scott Aripoli, J.D. ’07, for his new role as the president of the board of trustees of the Law Foundation and Ashley Grace (J.D. ’14) as president of the Law Alumni Association Board Alumni play an essential role in mentoring our students (check out Scott welcoming our 1Ls), teaching as adjuncts, and in sustaining our school financially. Whether it is supporting student scholarships, empowering our faculty, refreshing our building, or launching new programs (like bar prep), your gifts are essential. And, as this story relates, your gift often has effects well beyond what you may have originally imagined.
Engaging the Legal Community. At UMKC Law, we are not only teaching our students the rule in Shelley’s Case. (If, like me, you’ve forgotten that one, here ya’ go.) We also connect our students with our law school and legal communities on day one. Our student organization fair was a huge success this year. And reaching out into the practitioner community, too. For instance, the student chapter of the Federal Bar Association and Husch Blackwell hosted our welcome back reception recently, attended by nearly 30 judges and attorneys as well as scores of students. And these events are just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you to all our alumni and friends who have spent time these past weeks with our students and faculty. It makes all the difference.
Warmest regards,
Lumen “Lou” Mulligan
Warmest regards,
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
Despite all the buzz, we have not had a Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift sighting at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law…yet. Although we don’t have Taylor and Travis we have outstanding students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends. Indeed, in highlighting a bit of their accomplishments in this message, I cannot help but feel incredibly proud to be a member of this community.
As for me, as Johnny Cash would say, “I’ve Been Everywhere” this past month and have had the pleasure of meeting so many of you. Whether it is at the Johnson County Bar Association luncheon, the Missouri Bar Annual Meeting, the Hispanic Bar Association of Greater KC dinner, meetings at dozens of law firms across the metro, Alumni Association events, visiting with our federal judge alumni, recruiting students, or leading Constitution Day celebrations here on campus, thank you for coming out and supporting UMKC Law.
Swearing In Our Newest Lawyers. Congratulations to our freshly minted Missouri and Kansas lawyers who swore in at the end of September. We are proud of you all! It was a privilege to join folks in Jefferson City for the ceremony and to host an alumni reception the evening before for dozens of alumni and friends. Building on these recent bar-passage successes, as of December 2023, all UMKC Law J.D. graduates are enrolled in Helix Bar Review, a premier online bar-prep program, as part of their tuition and fees! And all UMKC Law J.D. graduates will be enrolled in the UMKC in-person bar-review program as part of their tuition and fees! You can learn more about our program here. As you might imagine, bringing this program to our students requires substantial resources. Please support this bar-prep program with your gift.
UMKC Law Shines at the Missouri Bar Annual Meeting. It was a pleasure to see so many of our UMKC Law community members at the Missouri Bar Annual Conference in KC last month. The Chief Justice recognized our law review editor-and-chief, Naomi Buie, as an outstanding up- and-coming leader in the bar. The Bar honored two of our alumni with awards: Keegan Tinney (J.D. 2017) with the YLS Tom Cochran Community Service Award; and Lisa Weixelman (J.D. 1982) with the Martin J. Purcell Award. And our faculty were leading presenters. Associate Dean Nancy Levit led an important discussion on creating a life of balance and satisfaction in a demanding legal profession. And alumna Mira Mdivani moderated a panel with our faculty, Ryan Copus and Ayyoub Ajmi discussing AI and the law. You and your gifts play a key role in these student, alumni, and faculty successes that the Missouri Bar recognized. Thank you for supporting our community and please consider renewing your support.
Leading in the Community. Continuing our tradition of deep engagement, Mayor Quinton Lucas recently appointed Professor Evan Absher to the inaugural Small Business Task Force for KCMO. Mayor Lucas charged the task force with developing a strategic plan to provide necessary funding, programming, technical assistance and other support services to foster an inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem. You can learn more about our business and entrepreneurial program here.
Leading National Voices. At UMKC Law, our students learn from the very best. Just last month, Professors Wanda Temm, Mike Tripp, and Meghan Sholy-Wells, represented the UMKC School of Law at the 2023 Central States Legal Writing Conference at Drake University. To learn more about our legal writing program, which is ranked #13 by U.S. News & World Report, please visit our website. Professors Pat Brayer, Steve Leben, and Barbara Zabawa presented at the Central States Law Schools Association Annual Scholarship Conference at the University of Oklahoma. To learn more about faculty scholarship at UMKC Law, check out our institutional repository.
UMKC Law Supports Rural and Military Practice. We are proud to be the KC Metro’s law school and to serve the rural parts of our community as well. Last month, alumni Allan Seidel (J.D. 1972) and Race Leiber (J.D. 2021) led a discussion with current students on the outstanding opportunities available to young attorneys who launch a practice in rural communities. We were equally as excited to host a forum for students interested in a J.A.G. Corps career. As always, our grads are in high demand, with 96.6% of the 2022 class employed--a stat that bests the national average by 4.5 points. If you are looking to hire a law grad, please contact our career services office today.
First-in-Class CLE. Our CLE team, once again, is hosting an array of incredible programs. Whether it is the 60th Anniversary of the Heart of America Tax Institute, the Midwest Bankruptcy Institute, or the National E-Discovery Leadership Institute, our programs should not be missed. And for those wanting more of an adventure, sign up for one of our CLE-Abroad programs.
Warmest regards,
Lumen “Lou” Mulligan
Dean and Professor of Law
Dear UMKC Law Alumni and Friends,
As we enter the holiday season, we have so much to be thankful for at UMKC Law. This starts with our community. In reading my highlights below, I am sure you will agree with me that our community—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—fosters our tradition of excellence. I wish you all a happy holiday season.
Thankful for our faculty. My faculty colleagues continue to amaze. For example, the ABA recently honored Dean Emerita and Professor Barbara Glesner Fines with the prestigious Difference Maker Award. The Tap In Center, a project co-founded by Associate Professor Pat Brayer, cleared over 400 warrants just since July 2023.
Thankful for leaders visiting our school. We were honored to host Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas at the law school recently to discuss a career in public service with the students. It was also a true pleasure to host Kansas Attorney General (ret.) and former Kansas gubernatorial candidate, Derek Schmidt, who discussed with the students the challenge of being a lawyer in elected office.
Thankful for our students. I love introducing our students to our community leaders. They are a hardworking and bright cohort. Indeed, our mock trial teams continue to set the standard with yet another national tournament finalist showing! This is not to say they don’t have a bit of fun, too. The Latino Law Student Association sponsored free paletas, in which I happily indulged. And we hosted our inaugural law-themed Halloween costume contest. I came as administrative law.
Thankful for our outstanding staff leaders. Our staff plays such an important role in these student successes. Take Desiree Rognlie for example, our pro bono honors coordinator and assistant director of career services. Last year, with her leadership, our law students completed more than 10,000 hours of pro bono work! And it doesn’t stop with just our students in law school. Bree Boger, our director of admissions, recently presented at the Wyandotte County Courthouse for Law Day with the Kansas Bar Association Diversity Committee and Awesome Ambitions. The event welcomed middle and high-school-aged women from the Kansas City metro area to learn more about the law profession and engage in a law simulation.
Thankful for our diverse community. Nurturing our diverse community means so much more than recruiting. It means supporting our entire community while they are students and as they enter the profession. We were thrilled, as such, to support the UMKC-wide Pride Breakfast. And it was a high honor to announce the new Christian Lee Honea Scholarship, which supports military veterans at UMKC Law.
Thankful for our alumni leaders. As these students enter the profession, our UMKC alumni naturally become leaders. For example, Brice Barnard, Lauren Dollar, and Sam Sherman were just named to the Missouri Bar Young Lawyers Council. Rory Akers was recognized by Women We Admire as a Top 50 Women Leaders of Missouri. Our Sixteenth Circuit judicial alumni hosted me for an outstanding conversation about mentoring our new graduates at the Eastern Jackson County Courthouse. And we had a wonderful day in Joplin, visiting with our graduates and friends.
Thankful for our national reputation for excellence. With alumni like these, we can readily understand the strength of our national reputation. Indeed, the ABA Solo, Small Firm, and General Practice Division chose to host its annual conference with us last month. And our new bar-prep plan, which comes at no additional costs beyond tuition and fees, garnered a lot of national press, including in Law.com. You can learn more about this game-changing program here.
Warmest regards,
Lumen “Lou” Mulligan
Dean and Professor of Law
Dean's Message January 2022
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to incorporate more fully an attitude of gratitude into my daily life. The pandemic sometimes so focuses our attention on the people and experiences we are missing that we overlook the goodness that is right there in front of us. It’s easy, as the Dean of UMKC School of Law, to find reasons to be grateful. Chief among those are our amazing alumni! This spring we will be celebrating awards honoring our alumni. In February, we will honor our alumni award winners, including our lifetime achievement award winner Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr. We will honor our late alumna JoEllen Flanagan Engelbart by re-naming our Pro Bono/Public Service award in her honor. And we will celebrate a new award this year: the Alvin Sykes Justice Award. This new award reaches out from our alumni to recognize the extraordinary contributions to justice made by our partners in the community. You can read more about Alvin Sykes’ extraordinary contributions here. We look forward to honoring our alumni award winners at the Big Event.
In April, the University will be holding its annual alumni awards celebrations and the School of Law’s alumni will shine there too. The UMKC Alumnus of the Year is our own Bryan Meyer (JD ‘15) co-founder of the Veterans Community Project. Bryan’s work was featured in our 2017 Issue of Res Ipsa and has gained national attention for its comprehensive and innovative solutions to meeting the needs of veterans. Once again, this year, the University’s recipient of the Bill French Alumni Service Award will be one of our own: the Hon. Ann Mesle (J.D. ‘72). There are few critical service roles in the university to which Judge Mesle hasn’t made a contribution, including service to our Law Foundation as a past President and emerita member. Finally, this year’s Legacy Family - The North/Cheadle family – features UMKC Law alumni Basil North Jr. (J.D. ‘71) and his daughter Maria North Morgan (J.D. ’91).
The list goes on: wherever there are awards or recognitions to be given, you find UMKC Law alumni there to receive them. We love to brag about you all, so please let us know of the honors you are being given so we can share your accomplishments on social media or on our website’s news blog. For all our alumni do to make this work more just, safe and equitable, my cup of gratitude overflows.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message February 2022
Spring is almost here and, with it, a wonderful array of celebrations. Among these are two student-driven programs: Family Law Trivia Night (March 4) and the Diverse Student Coalition Scholarship Banquet (New Date - April 14). Our students take the lead on these programs, learning so much in the process that I feel that we should award them an event-planning degree along with their J.D. I am inspired by these students who work so hard to generate resources for the students who will come after them.
I hope you are inspired too and will contribute to our students’ efforts. There are sponsorship opportunities still available for these events, but even just buying a ticket accomplishes so much. Your presence sends a strong message of support and engagement to these students as well as to the larger community. Your financial investment not only buys you admission to a fun event, but also helps to fund critical support for our students and programs. Your engagement ensures the success of these programs, which in turn, inspires these students to continue to contribute their time and talents to giving back throughout their career.
I have the privilege to get to know so many of our students. They are a remarkable group of individuals with a breathtaking array of accomplishments, experiences, and interests, united by their desire to become lawyers and make a difference. Because of your support, they are able to realize that vision without the barrier of crippling student loan debt. Please consider joining these students in supporting these important programs. Even if you can’t attend the event, you can still make a contribution. Every gift makes a difference.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
As spring arrives at the School of Law, we are grateful to be able to resume some of our important events to celebrate our community. The theme for The Big Event this year – Back on Broadway – certainly captured the excitement we all felt at being able to be together to reconnect and to celebrate our award winners.
The event itself reminded us once again of the core values of the UMKC Law community. Lifetime Achievement winner the Honorable Fernando Gaitan, Jr. (’74) reminded us that having a mission to give back to your community can provide the courage to overcome challenges and take advantage of opportunities. We were honored to re-name our pro bono/public service award to honor JoEllen Flanagan Engelbart. This year’s recipient Tracy Spradlin (’12) was especially honored to receive the award as she was a friend of JoEllen’s and knew how fully she had dedicated her life to the service of others.
The UMKC Law School Young Alumni Group, represented by founders Ashley Grace (’14) and Tyson Bramley (’14), richly deserved the Pat Kelly Service Award. The “Lunch at the Bar” program reminds our graduates taking the bar twice a year that they are part of a larger community that is cheering them on to success. Likewise, the winners of The Decade Award – Crissy Del Percio (’13) – and The Jay B. Dillingham Award – Desarae Harrah (’05) – exemplify the of UMKC Law values commitment to service and community.
Two awards honor friends of the School of Law who advance our mission. The Philanthropy Award was given to the Sunderland Foundation for their generous donation to renovate our classrooms and student services offices. The inaugural recipient of the Alvin Sykes Justice Award Carmaletta Williams, Ph.D., executive director of the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City, is a perfect example of how one need not be an attorney to advance justice.
Looking ahead to more celebrations of accomplishment, we are honored that the School of Law alumni are well represented again this year in the UMKC Alumni Association annual awards. Our Law School Alumnus of the Year is Kent Emison. Again, this year, a UMKC Law alumnus is the recipient of the Bill French Service Award: the Honorable Ann Mesle (J.D. ‘72). Finally, this year’s UMKC Alumnus of the Year is our own Bryan Meyer (J.D. ‘15). Read more about this year’s award winners.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
UMKC Law consistently earns very high ranks in its reputation and specialty rankings in US News and World Report. This year, once again, those rankings speak to our national leadership, especially in key specialty areas that the magazine ranks.
This year, we ranked #21 in the category of legal writing (a significant jump from #34 last year). Thanks go to our nationally recognized faculty leaders Wanda Temm, Judy Popper, Barb Wilson, Dan Weddle, joined this year by our newest faculty members Mike Tripp and Meghan Sholy-Wells. In Trial Advocacy, our ranking has moved from #54 to #31 – the highest it has ever been in some years! Professor Michaelle Tobin, Professor Steve Leben, and Teaching Fellow Patrick Brayer, lead the trial and appellate advocacy programs that are part of a rich curriculum we offer students in advocacy, with the generosity and skill of our full-time and adjunct faculty. Our student teams are regularly finalists in national competitions. Even more important, we are so proud of our reputation for graduating attorneys with the skills to seamlessly begin their practice. In two additional specialty areas, we have also increased our score. Thanks and congratulations are owed to Professors Ann Marie Marciarille and Yvette Lindgren as our ranking in Health Care has increased from #110 to #102. Likewise, thank you to our Intellectual Property faculty (Professors Jasmine Abdel-khalik, Paul Callister, Chris Holman, and Dani Merrick). Our ranking here has moved from #102 to #100. These specialty rankings help us to tell the story of our incredible faculty. Of course, not all areas of practice are ranked by US News, which leaves out some of our other areas of strength, such as family law, business & entrepreneurship, environmental & land use, and international and comparative law.
All these reputational rankings exceed our overall ranking of #114. We know that much of this ranking is simply a function of resources – spending per student is part of the rank calculation, as are scholarships that can impact the median LSAT and average debt at graduation. Our regional competitors give as much as 28% of their classes a full-tuition scholarship or more. By comparison, we are able to give only 3% of our students full-tuition scholarships. What is not resource dependent are the rankings we receive by our peers and by lawyers. We know we do a great job educating our students and so do our peers and the local bench and bar! Thank you to all of you for the outstanding work you do to build our reputation and support our students. You are all #1!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Students choose UMKC Law because they know they will be prepared well for the practice of law and will have excellent opportunities for employment when they graduate. For the class of 2020 (measured at nine months post-graduation) 92.6% of our students were employed, the overwhelming majority of them in bar-passage-required or JD-advantage positions. National Jurist magazine has recognized UMKC Law as #15 in the nation in its Employment Honor Roll ranking of law school performance in placing its graduates. Much of the work of preparing students for their careers takes place in our Professional and Career Development Center (PCDC), which posted more than 1000 different local and regional positions this past year. We are fortunate to have an extraordinary staff managing the work of the PCDC: Director Jennifer Dierks, Associate Director Megan Dougherty and Assistant Director Desiree Rognlie.
The past year has been a challenging one for hiring in all industries and professions, and law is no exception. If you are hiring – whether for a single project or a long-term association, a law student or graduate – reach out to our office for help. We can assist in creating a posting that will attract applications and in identifying students who have interests or qualifications to encourage them to apply.
Likewise, if you are looking for a change in your career, our professional staff can help with search strategies, resume reviews, job opportunities (we especially have opportunities for those who are 3-7 years into their career) and other advice.
Don’t forget to let us know when you've made a career move – whether that’s advancement in your own organization or a change in direction. We are always interested in learning more about the career journeys of our alumni! Thank you to all our alumni who mentor, guide, and hire their fellow UMKC Law graduates!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
A new academic year begins and, with it, 140 new law students eager and ready to build successful careers! UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal and a distinguished group of alumni and faculty greeted our new class at our matriculation ceremony. The Honorable Fernando Gaitan, Jr. administered the law school oath: “We will pursue our legal education with integrity, and with a genuine respect for people, for knowledge and ideas, and for justice.”
We start the year celebrating this past year’s successful hiring season in which we conducted numerous national searches for new faculty.
The Honorable Steve Leben has been named the Douglas R. Stripp Missouri Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Leben joined the UMKC School of Law faculty in 2020 after 27 years as a Kansas judge, the last 13 as a member of the Kansas Court of Appeals.
Professor Meghan Sholy-Wells accepted our offer to teach as an Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills and Professor Michael Tripp accepted our offer to teach as an Associate Professor of Lawyering Skills.
Also joining the faculty full-time after a year’s visit is Professor Randall K. Johnson who joins us from Mississippi College of Law. Professor Johnson will teach Property I, Property II, Entrepreneurial Urban Development, Real Estate Transactions, and Law, Technology and Public Policy at UMKC. He will be continuing to pursue his scholarly agenda, which focuses on state and local government law.
Zach Buchanan (need link) is joining as a Faculty Fellow to teach Wrongful Convictions and a new section of Learning from Practice (Innocence Defense). A graduate of Harvard Law School, Zach is a former Assistant Federal Public Defender with the Arizona Capital Habeas Unit. Zach joins us as part of our long-standing partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project.
Farewell to Professor Ann Marie Marciarille, who will be returning to antitrust practice in California. Professor Marciarille joined UMKC in 2012, teaching and writing in health law and antitrust.
We are excited for the year ahead, when we will be searching for new faculty in the areas of criminal law, business, health law and family law. We will also launch a search for a new dean. After 8 years as associate dean and over five years as dean, I decided to return to the faculty at the end of this academic year. It has been my profound privilege and honor to work with an extraordinary group of faculty, staff, and alumni in this role. I look forward to continuing to collaborate as a member of the UMKC law faculty. Thank you to all of you for your commitment to your alma mater.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
UMKC Law School alumni did it again. At this past weeks’ Missouri Bar Annual Conference, it was UMKC Law alumni who rocked the awards, led the programs, and joined together in a common mission of excellence in their work and in advancing the legal system. (Having taught at UMKC for nearly four decades now, I take particular pride in their accomplishments, as so many are my former students.)
Leading the annual meeting was John Grimm (’87). John led the Missouri Bar this year as President, guiding the bar back from the pandemic and setting it on the road to continued growth. He did so with the unmistakable good humor and humility I remember from when he was a student in my first year of teaching at UMKC Law School in my Federal Jurisdiction class.
The Missouri Bar Foundation luncheon saw UMKC Law Alumni taking the stage for award after award. The Honorable Fernando Gaitan (’74) was recognized with the Missouri Bar Foundation’s highest award: the Spurgeon Smithson Award. Judge Gaitan joins thirteen other UMKC Law Alumni who have been given that award in the past twelve years.
Dana Tippin Cutler (’89) was given the Foundation’s Purcell Professionalism Award. Dana was especially honored to receive this award because her father James Tippin (’73) was given the award in 2011. Nearly half of the recipients of this award have been UMKC Alumni, ever since Larry Ward (’61) was recognized in 1997.
A third Missouri Bar Foundation Award is the Lon O. Hocker Award. This award is presented to three attorneys under the age of 40 who exemplify the qualities of a trial lawyer, including professionalism and high ethical conduct. This year, two of the three recipients were UMKC Alumni: Philip Fuhrman (‘09) and Christopher Accurso (‘14). For Christopher, the award also was a family tradition, as his father Louis Accurso (’81), won this award in 1990. They are not alone – over 40 UMKC Law alumni have won this award since Paul E. Vardeman (‘53) was presented the award in 1959.
In addition to the Foundation awards, the annual meeting celebrated Missouri Bar Awards for excellence in areas of practice. Erlene Krigel (‘79) was selected as the 2022 recipient of the Michael R. Roser Excellence in Bankruptcy Award. Karen DeLuccie (‘82) was posthumously awarded the Roger P. Krumm Family Law Award.
And all that was just one week! Look around. Whenever there are awards and recognitions for excellence, leadership, and service, you will find your fellow UMKC Law Alumni. For every award winner you see, there are hundreds more equally deserving alumni of our law school, pursuing excellence in their practice, serving their communities, and fighting for the rule of law and the improvement of our system of justice.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
As I prepare to step back to the full-time faculty and leave the deanship at the end of this year, I have been reflecting on the past fourteen years of serving as an associate dean and dean. One of the areas that has seen consistent growth in that period has been attention to the well-being of our students. We know that to be a great lawyer, one must be a healthy lawyer. So our faculty and staff have worked hard to support our students’ wellness. I am confident that we will continue to find more and better ways to do so. In February, the American Bar Association amended accreditation Standard 303 to require that the curriculum include attention to "well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice;" and Standard 508, which requires that law schools provide information on law student well-being resources.
I hope you, too, are taking good care of yourself and each other. I hope that if you were in the path of Hurricane Ian or have experienced any other natural disasters, that you and your family are safe and well. If you are in the midst of an extraordinary challenge to your health, family or work – or whether you are simply balancing the ordinary stress of the immense responsibility of practicing law -- I hope that you are attending to your responsibility to take care of yourself. I also hope that you have the support of your colleagues and professionals to restore your well-being. Finally, please know that your alma mater cares and is here to help.
One final thought: helping others is a time-tested way to improve our own wellness, so if you would like to join in our efforts to enhance well-being at the school of law, please do feel free to reach out to me.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Gratitude is such a powerful force. A thank you connects us to one another, grounds us in the positive even in the most difficult of times and can turn a “have to do” into a “get to do.” At this time of year, I am especially grateful for the generosity of our alumni and the impact it has.
Did you know that UMKC Law School offers more courses in more areas of law than comparably sized law schools nationwide and that our bar preparation program is a national leader? We can provide that rich curriculum and preparation because of all our alumni who help educate our students as guest lectures, panelists, adjunct faculty, bar review graders, intern supervisors, and more.
Did you know that UMKC has been recognized as one of the top law schools for its consistent success in placing graduates in professional careers? That’s because of all of you who have hired our students as clerks or associates or who have otherwise helped our graduates to great careers
Did you know that a larger percentage of law school alumni give back to their school than any of the alumni groups at UMKC? Your financial commitment, no matter how many dollars it represents, is powerful: sending a message of strength and support in these uncertain times for public higher education.
Did you know that a greater percentage of our alumni are Super Lawyers than most law schools nationwide? That quality starts with a great education and access to that education requires support of our alumni. We have been especially fortunate to have alumni who have taken advantage of our Westfall matching gift program this year to create endowed scholarships and to those who have made a commitment to the future through an estate gift.
Did you know that our trial advocacy program has been consistently ranked among the top in the nation by US News and World Report? That accomplishment too is a product of loyal alumni support. We have recently launched a major campaign to enhance our advocacy program. Thank you to Scott Bethune (J.D. ‘88), Kent Emison (J.D. ‘81), David Mayer (J.D. ‘92), Jim Bartimus (J.D. ‘77) and their firms and foundations for leading the way with their generous gifts. With their leadership, we have surpassed the halfway point to our $1 million campaign goal. You can donate by selecting Advocacy Programs on our Annual Giving page.
UMKC School of Law could not continue to provide excellent, innovative, and connected teaching, research, and service without all these contributions. Your gifts tell us that you too are grateful for the education you acquired and the community you built here at UMKC Law School. Happy Thanksgiving!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message January 2021
Dear alumni community,
This has been such a difficult start to the new year in so many ways.
While we all have been looking to the horizon of the pandemic, now visible as vaccines have been approved and are being distributed, the virus has not abated. On January 2nd, as I'm sure you all have seen, COVID-19 took JoEllen Flanagan-Engelbart (JD'15) only a few days after she gave birth to her son Ross, three months early. JoEllen represented everything that makes UMKC Law graduates stand out in our community. She was an outstanding student, talented advocate, devoted student and alumni leader, beloved colleague, and indefatigable volunteer. Our deepest condolences go to her husband Matthew Engelbart and son Ross and all those whose lives will be diminished by her absence. Read more about JoEllen's remarkable impact.
We had hoped for more in-person classes this semester, especially now that the renovations to classrooms 02 and 05 have been completed, but we will be starting the semester entirely online and will return to some in-person (masked and socially distanced) classes after the end of January. The faculty and students have proven remarkably adepts at pivoting to remote teaching and learning, but we are all suffering from Zoom fatigue" and look forward to being able to interact in hallways, offices, and library again. I suspect the same is true for you in your practices. I will be offering some “open office hours” (yes, using Zoom) in the weeks ahead. Please drop by and let us know how you are doing
Finally, of course the events in our nation's capitol on January 6 remain at the forefront of our minds. As I shared with the law school community the day after these events, "watching the violent interference with the Constitutional process required to insure the transition of power in a democracy has only reinforced the importance of the role of lawyers and the rule of law." https://law.umkc.edu/news/2021/janurary/recent-national-events.html
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message February 2021
A challenge for the times
As the temperatures drop below zero, we continue to hunker down in isolation, and we try to continue to serve our students and clients through the challenges of the times, taking care of ourselves must be a top priority. So much good thought and work has gone into the topic of attorney wellness recently as our local and state bar associations convene workshops and taskforces to improve attorney wellbeing. Knowing that attorney wellness turns on habits that are often first developed in law school, here at the UMKC School of Law, we have long emphasized the need for self-care. Our director of student services Ashley Swanson-Hoye has been honored by the University with the Living the Values staff award for her work on the front lines of helping students with the personal challenges they weather while in law school. Ann Chambers from the Missouri Lawyers Assistance Program is an extraordinary resource for the students, holding regular (now virtual) office hours at the school. Our students work through their Oliver Society to plan events and programs to support wellness in all its dimensions. To further support these efforts, I have issued a self-care challenge to our law school community to carry us through until Spring Break. If you would like to join the challenge, simply set aside some time each day between now and the end of March to devote to improving your self-care. Check out the UMKC Ethical Issues in Family Representation Blog (at https://info.umkc.edu/familylawethics/ ) blog for a self care tool or tip each day of the challenge. The posts will not be limited to self care for family law attorneys, but are designed to help maintain healthy practice in any field. Some of our faculty have assigned our students the self-care challenge. You too can feel free to share the challenge and the blog with your colleagues if you like. Check in often and try out a tool. Share ideas in the comments. If you would like to be a guest blogger for the day with a self-care practice or perspective, please send me your post and I'll be happy to share (with attribution of course). I am continually inspired by the dedication of our faculty, staff, students, alumni and legal community to their ability to aim ad eruditio per aspera(to hack the Kansas state motto). Be safe, stay warm, and take good care of yourselves.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message March 2021
A Celebration of Connection
One year ago, we faced an impending pandemic, with little warning of what the time ahead would look like. How amazing it is that one year later, through isolation and separation, we have continued to stay so connected and focused on our mission of being a justice-driven law school. These past few weeks provide some marvelous examples in which our students have led our community to support our programs, our community, and each other. On February 26, our students in the Family Law Society hosted our annual trivia night – though a virtual event this year, a good time was had by all. Through the generosity of Professor Julie Cheslik and Paul Black, who matched the scholarship donations, the event raised over $6000 for the clinic, the Baty Family Law Scholarship, and the Kristin Campbell Johnson Scholarship. On March 2nd another group of extraordinary students – the Diverse Student Coalition – hosted our annual diversity scholarship event. Again, a virtual event, the program once again raised nearly $70,000, to add to the scholarship endowment. We welcomed our new students to Admitted Students Day on March 19, with remarks by Judge Melissa Taylor Standridge (JD ‘93), newly appointed to the Supreme Court of Kansas. On March 23rd, the Oliver Fellows event, while virtual, was be especially meaningful. Professor Sean O’Brien (JD ‘80) introduced the 2020 Oliver Fellow, Shelbi Danner, who serves as a Deputy Public Defender in Colorado. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker (JD ‘98) presented remarks honoring our 2015 Oliver Fellow JoEllen Flanagan Engelbart, whom we lost recently to COVID-19. The Oliver Fellowship honors Judge John W. Oliver and provides financial support for those pursuing public interest positions.
Spring will bring even more opportunities for connection and community. We are looking forward to once again hosting our newest graduates who will be sworn into the Missouri and Federal Bar at the law school’s courtroom. While these students had a virtual graduation event, we are pleased we have made arrangement to have a safe in-person ceremony for this momentous occasion. The University will be celebrating our alumni award winners virtually in April and the law school couldn’t be more proud at our representation among the winners: Jim Polsinelli was selected as the Bill French Service Award; the Edelman Family, including the law school’s own Ron (JD ‘82) , Mark (JD ‘75), and Alex (JD ‘12) will be this year’s recipient of the Legacy Family Award; and Mira Mdviani (JD ‘99) will be recognized as the UMKC School of Law Alumna of the Year. Read more about this year’s award winners.
It won’t be long now before we will be able to more many more of these celebrations to in-person events and we can hardly wait. In the meantime, all of us at UMKC Law wish you health and joy.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message April 2021
Forming Leaders in Challenging Times
It’s that time of year when we begin thinking of graduations and final report cards. For UMKC School of Law, I am proud to say that we have a very strong report card this year, despite the extraordinary challenges we have faced In national rankings of expertise by National Jurist and preLaw magazines, UMKC Law School has been awarded “grades” of A+ in Family Law; A in Tax and Trial Advocacy; A- in Business Law, Practical Training, Technology Law and Intellectual Property. In addition, our US News & World Report ranking for the School of Law increased 22 points.
Of course, these “grades” are simply evidence of what we already know – that we have a group of extraordinarily dedicated faculty, staff and alumni who deliver a tremendous value to our students. Our tuition remains the lowest among the law schools in Missouri and Kansas and our graduate employment and ultimate bar pass rates match those of schools with substantially greater resources. Nonetheless, 80% of UMKC Law Students carry student loans. While UMKC Law is in the bottom 40% of law schools nationwide in terms of the amount of debt our students carry, that sum is still enough to foreclose many career options in public service or government work that students might otherwise truly prefer to pursue. Through the generosity of donors to our scholarship programs and our post-graduate public interest Oliver Fellowship, we are working to lower the debt burden for our students.
For over 125 years, UMKC Law has taken pride in providing access to the legal profession, especially for those students who might not otherwise be able to attend law school. We’ve just weathered an incredibly challenging time in our history, yet we’ve known that challenge often forges great leadership. Consider the class of 1932, which began with nearly 250 students in the depths of the Great Depression. By graduation, that group was reduced by nearly two-thirds. The class was diverse for its time: eight women were in the graduating class. It was also notable for the quality of its graduates. For example, Jay P. Dillingham went on to become the President of the Kansas City Stockyards and a long-time business leader, and an award in his honor was established at the law school. His classmate Jack Miller became President and Founder of Trenton Foods. The Miller Foundation established in his honor a full-tuition scholarship to one entering UMKC law student each year. Other notable leaders from that class include Rabbi Jehudah Braver, Chief Rabbi of the United Orthodox Synagogues of Greater Kansas City; and Hilary Ashby Bush, who was Jackson County Prosecutor in the 1940s and 50s and the 37th lieutenant governor of Missouri from 1961-65.
What leaders will we see emerge from this graduating class? Will you help your law school continue to provide a legal education that nurtures these leaders? Your donation to our scholarship funds can quite literally open the door to a legal education.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dean's Message June 2021
What can we do for you?
What a wonderful commencement we all enjoyed this Spring! The graduating class of 2021 had hooding ceremonies in small groups. It was a lovely way to honor the special accomplishments of each of our graduates. Eight of our alumni hooded their graduating family members. Hooding their children were Rodney Ames (J.D. ’96), Ed McConwell (J.D. ’66), Amy Quinn (J.D. ’13), Don Peterson (J.D. ’72), Carl Scarborough (J.D. ’12), Ben Schmitt (J.D. ’89) and Andrea Spillars (J.D. ’89). Emma Ross (J.D. ’19) hooded her sister. These events were followed by a university commencement at Kauffman Stadium. In the morning, a ceremony was held for the 2021 graduates from law, engineering, and business. While the weather was generally drenching wet, the rain stopped just as the first law student stepped onto the field to receive their diploma and then started again as the last law student stepped off the field. The afternoon’s ceremony for the 2020 graduates was less cooperative, but the joy of seeing our students receive their diplomas with their families cheering from the stands was priceless. Special thanks go to our own Kyle Vena (J.D. ’05), Vice President of Community Impact for the Royals, for making this possible for the university.
Our alumni are all so generous. Like our alumni hooders this year, so many of you recruit family members and friends to attend UMKC Law. Like Kyle Vena, so many of you direct community support to the law school and our programs. Hundreds of you volunteer your time in teaching, coaching, judging, advising, mentoring or hiring our students; or make financial donations that are at the highest rate of any alumni group on campus. Thank you.
Our national rankings, campus awards, bar passage and employment rates tell us that we are enhancing the value of your degree by providing quality education, research and service to the region and beyond. We can do more if you let us know of your accomplishments so that we can spread the good news. I hope you all have received our first-ever 100% online copy of Res Ipsa magazine. We love to share your story there and elsewhere. For news, ideas, and suggestions, email resipsa@umkc.edu .
Our continuing legal education program provides some of the highest quality educational programs in the region: from large annual programs with loyal partners such as the Kansas City Estate Planning Symposium to our annual “Time is Now” programs in June to on-demand and webinar programs throughout the year. Do you have a particular need for continuing legal education programs? Let us know. We are always happy to collaborate with our alumni.
Our professional and career development center has been helping students to forge their career paths with astounding success – even in these most challenging times. If you have a need to hire or if you yourself are considering a career move, our professionals in the career center are ready to help.
Of course, our alumni association is here to help you connect with one another and the law school. The Alumni Association encourages you to register for the UMKC Law Alumni Directory, which will allow you to stay connected and get referrals from your former classmates and other alumni. For help, contact Cary Powers at powerscl@umkc.edu or 816-235-5361.
I hope you all are well. My faculty and staff colleagues and I who have been fully vaccinated have been enjoying planning more in-person events this summer and into the fall. Do be sure to keep our 125th Anniversary Gala on your calendar – the evening of November 6th. At that point we will technically be celebrating 125.01 years, but we are thrilled to be able to round up and turn out for this event!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
A new school year has arrived, and we are looking forward to being able to enjoy more time together in person this year. Of course, safety comes first. We learned a lot this past year about how to create both a safe and effective educational environment and we will be applying those lessons. We will be starting the new year wearing masks in the law school building, regardless of vaccination status.
Our incoming class is strong and diverse, with our current first-year enrollment standing at 135 students. Their academic credentials are stronger than ever. LSAT scores of the class have increased one point at the 25th and 50th percentiles and two points at the 75th percentile, with similar increases in entering grade point averages. The class has 54% women, 22% identifying as students of color, 21% first generation college, and 6% veterans or active-duty military. Their average age is 25. Of the 135, 25 began as spring-start students in January of 2021 and 17 began in our summer-start program. Both cohorts began their legal education with most or all of their classes being delivered online. This fall, they will be joining our 93 fall-start students. Thank you to all our alumni who have recommended UMKC Law School to potential students and who will be helping our new class begin to develop their new identity as attorneys.
We are very happy to welcome new faculty members this year as well. Joining us from Mississippi College of Law to teach Property and Entrepreneurial Urban Development will be Visiting Professor Randall Johnson. Coming back to their alma mater to teach in our Lawyering Skills program are Associate Visiting Clinical Professors Michael Tripp (JD’93) and Meghan Sholy-Wells (JD’18). Leading our renewed Innocence Clinic and teaching the Wrongful Convictions course will be Adjunct Clinical Professor David Tushaus, who will be supervising students in partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project. Finally, you likely read about our ever growing Truman Fellowship program, in which our recent graduates serve with our clinical programs to increase access to justice. The Truman Fellow tenant eviction project has been particularly vital, with oversight by our own UMKC alumni, Adjunct Clinical Professors David White (JD’82) and Brian Larios (JD’91).
We will be holding the majority of our classes in person this fall for the first time since Spring of 2020. Our newly renovated classrooms will be awaiting the classes. Thanks to the generosity of the Sunderland Foundation, these classrooms offer maximum flexibility in learning configurations, including the technological tools to be able to hold classes in a hybrid in-person/online format. With these two classrooms added to the Arthur Stoup Courtroom (also fully hybrid capable), the law school now has the most technologically sophisticated classroom options on campus.
Our professional and career development center has been helping students to forge their career paths with astounding success – even in these most challenging times. If you have a need to hire or if you yourself are considering a career move, our professionals in the career center are ready to help.
We are looking forward to our delayed celebration of our 125th Anniversary! Mark your calendars now for our Saturday, November 6th celebration. Ticket and table purchases and event sponsorships can be purchased on the 125th Anniversary Gala webpage. Thank you to our alumni leaders who have already agreed to sponsor the event: Jack Bangert, Scott Bethune, Tom Jones, and Mira Mdivani. We are currently planning for an in-person event but will of course follow the directives of our public health and university officials. As a reminder, Doris Kearns Goodwin will be the featured speaker at this event and a portion of the proceeds will help establish the 125th Anniversary Endowed Scholarship, which will support students who show interest in and talent for pursuing community-connected and justice-driven legal careers following the mission of the law school for more than 125 years.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Each year, National Jurist magazine ranks a variety of law school programs. These rankings provide focused attention on unique qualities of law schools. For example, UMKC consistently ranks among the top law schools as a “Best Value” law school, with our low tuition and our excellent ultimate bar passage and employment outcomes. The rankings also recognize exceptional law school programs. UMKC Law has been given top ratings for nine different programs.
We were especially pleased to recently receive recognition in two categories that each reflect, the quality of our educational programs and the amazing achievements of our graduates.
UMKC’s Family Law program was awarded an A+ rating (one of only six schools nationally to get this top grade), and our program is the featured story in the magazine. This rating reflects not only our outstanding faculty and students, but the extraordinary contributions of our family law alumni who serve as adjunct faculty, judge graduates’ portfolio presentations, provide internship and clerkship opportunities, mentor our students, and hire our graduates. Those partnerships were also recognized recently when the UMKC Trustees awarded the School of Law’s Family Law program the Leo E. Morton Community Engagement Award.
Our alumni were the highlight of our ranking as one of the top 45 schools in the country for the percentages of grads (13%!) named as Super lawyers and Rising Stars. (UMKC was the only law school serving the Kansas City region to be named to this list!). We have always known that our graduates are disproportionately represented in local recognitions such as the KC Business Journal’s Best of the Bar, but it was gratifying to see that on a national scale, UMKC alumni are recognized for their excellence.
Congratulations to each of you who contributed to these recognitions! We appreciate all you do to help our law school shine. I look forward to celebrating in person with you at our 125th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, Nov. 6th!
Associate Professor Mikah Thompson was appointed, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the UMKC School of Law. . Mikah brings an extraordinary wealth of experience to this position. She represented clients in employment law matters in private practice and served as the Director of Affirmative Action, Title IX Coordinator, and ACA Accommodations Coordinator for UMKC. Her scholarship investigates the role of race in the law, and she translates that expertise into community impact through her work leading the Missouri Supreme Court’s Racial and Ethnic Fairness Commission, among other community commitments. She is an outstanding teacher. She developed and taught both the Seminar in Race and the Law and the Seminar in Sexual Orientation and the Law at the School of Law. She is currently helping to develop DEI curricula at the Schools of Medicine of both UMKC and MU. In her role as Associate Dean, Mikah will continue this broad leadership work and represent the School of Law on the UMKC Chancellor’s Diversity Council.
You don’t want to miss the UMKC School of Law’s 125th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Kansas City Convention Center. Catch-up with friends, colleagues, and alumni during the cocktail hour and dinner that is included with your event ticket. Then, enjoy featured speaker, Doris Kearns Goodwin, a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker, and New York Times #1 best-selling author. Individual tickets are $150. Table sponsorships are also available for $1,500 and seat ten guests. For more details and additional sponsorship opportunities with marketing benefits for your firm or business, please visit UMKCLaw125.org.
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
In just a few weeks, we will celebrate the Kansas City School of Law 125th Anniversary Gala. It is an extraordinary achievement. How many businesses that began in Kansas City have been in continuous operation for over 125 years? (The answer: fewer than 30 – four of them are law firms). 125 years ago, the profession of law was closed to those who did not have the wealth or connections to be able to either “read for the law” in a law office or obtain a law degree. The Kansas City School of Law was founded to provide a legal education to students “too poor to go away to school.” 125 years ago, women could not vote, could not serve on juries, and married women could not own property or enter into contracts independent of their husbands. Yet the 1895 entering class of the Kansas City School of Law included two women who were admitted to practice law: Mrs. Almena A Archer and Miss Bertha Pepper. Many more followed.
For 125 years, through economic depressions, wars, rights revolutions and more, the Kansas City School of Law has grown and flourished and continued its mission to open the doors of legal education and provide leaders for the region, nation, and the world. The School has produced a president of the United States and hundreds of other elected officials; a Supreme Court Justice and hundreds of judges at all levels of the judiciary; a Director of the FBI and hundreds of government attorneys and other public servants; thousands of attorneys in law firms, solo practice, and businesses all of whom have served as leaders in their communities and profession. The School also can count among its alumni founders of global charities and non-governmental organizations; business leaders; playwrights and authors; even the occasional scallywag or, in the case of Jesse James, Jr., son of a scallywag. The impact of our law school on our community and on the system of justice is immeasurable.
This is our history. Come join us in celebrating that history and in building our legacy for the next 125 years. You can read more about our history at https://umkclaw125.org/, where you can also buy your ticket or sponsorship for our Gala!
Peace
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Because of our generous sponsors and the David Westfall matching program, the fundraising at the Gala has permitted us to create an endowed 125th Anniversary Scholarship for students at the School of Law. (If you did not have the opportunity to take advantage of the matching gift during the event, you can still make a donation. All gifts received in response to this email will be matched and will support the 125th Anniversary Scholarship).
November also is a time for us to stop and remember the service and valor of our veterans and active-duty military members Each year, about 3-5% of our incoming class are active-duty members of the armed forces or veterans. They bring to their studies, and model for us all, discipline, commitment, and the profound understanding of what it means to live an oath to uphold the Constitution – an oath shared by all members of the legal profession. At our 125th Anniversary Gala, we were honored to receive an American flag that the Hon. William Mauer (J.D. ’59 and U.S. Navy veteran) and Mr. Bob DeWitt (J.D. ’54 and U.S. Army veteran) had flown on our behalf over the USS Harry S Truman Aircraft Carrier. We will display the flag at the law school in honor of all of our veterans. Thank you to all of our veterans and to your families for your service to our country.
With Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I am especially grateful this year for the UMKC Law School Community – our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends. They are dedicated to student learning, integral to our community, and passionate about justice.Happy Thanksgiving!
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Kansas City is abuzz with the Kanas City Chiefs advancing to the Super Bowl. UMKC Law Roos will be joining the rest of the community in rooting for our team. But did you know that the School of Law has an even deeper connection to the Chiefs than just being loyal fans? The last time that the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl was 1969. Among the players in that championship game was 21-year-old UMKC Law student Bob Stein, the youngest player ever to play in a Super Bowl. Bob was offered scholarships to Harvard, Michigan, and Stanford law schools after college, but chose to stay at UMKC and attended law school full time while also playing professional football. Today, Bob lives in Minneapolis and represents retired NFL players.
Bob is not the only UMKC alumnus who played for the Kansas City Chiefs. Chris Burford III (J.D. ’65) was a wide receiver for the Chiefs while also attending UMKC Law School. After graduating and leaving the Chiefs, Chris when on to practice law, representing the Pac-10 collegiate athletic conference. Thomas Condon, split his legal education between UMKC Law and the University of Baltimore while he played for the Chiefs between 1977 and 1981. Condon served as president of the NFL Players Association and went on to become one of the most highly respected sports agents in the industry.
Today, the School of Law’s connection to the Chiefs can be found in 3L student Hannah Bassham, who works as a TV and Radio announcer for Tico Sports, which provides the official Spanish language coverage of the Chiefs. Hannah provides commentary, sidelines reporting, and locker interviews.
Go Roo Lawyers! and Go Chiefs!
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Since its founding 125 years ago, UMKC has worked to provide affordable access to legal education for students without regard to gender, race, ethnicity or other societal barriers. Today, the entire law school community is continuing that mission. Your UMKC Law Alumni Association has formally adopted a Diverse Alumni Network Committee as part of its structure and I look forward to working with them in the year ahead. The law school’s faculty members have accomplished a great deal in research and teaching to advance diversity and inclusion. For example, Professors Mikah Thompson, David Achtenberg, and Mary Kay O’Malley all served as commissioners on the Missouri Supreme Court’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness. Professor Thompson’s research was instrumental in the Supreme Court’s adoption of a new Missouri Approved Instruction on implicit bias. To meet the new Missouri CLE requirement for cultural competence training, three of my faculty colleagues (Professors Irma Russell, Mikah Thompson, and Jamila Jefferson-Jones) and I are offering a webcast CLE program that addresses these issues. The webcasts will be offered March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1 and June 29th. Our students are taking the lead as well. On February 19th, in collaboration with the UMKC Black Law Students Association, UMKC CLE’s Film & the Law Series will feature When They See Us at the Screenland Armour Theatre. Free popcorn and up to 8 CLE credit hours! The student leaders of our diverse student organizations have come together as the Diverse Student Coalition and have planned an exciting new scholarship dinner event coming up in March. I love their theme: Diversity Brings Justice. These are just a few of the efforts of our entire community — alumni, faculty, staff, and students – living the UMKC School of Law’s values of respect for people, for knowledge and ideas, and for justice. Join us.
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Over 125 years UMKC School of Law has faced extraordinary events and challenges: war, depression, natural disasters, and more. Today we are in the midst of yet another extraordinary challenge. In these times of crisis, we must hold firm to our mission and our values and that is exactly what the UMKC School of Law community has done. There has been no panic. There has been a great deal of patience.
In one week’s time, the faculty and staff have pivoted to an online environment, but one in which we remain true to our mission of providing student-centered, community-engaged, and justice-driven education. We have continued our clinics and externships as much as possible and engaged with students in virtual classrooms and through emails and phone calls. Our continuing legal education department has shifted from in person events to develop and manage a host of webcasts. Students and faculty have taken the directive to slow the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing and meticulous disinfection but we have also done so while upholding our core values of respect for people, for knowledge and ideas, and for justice.
After 125 years, we’ve learned a thing or two about community. Now is the time to put that education to good use. I am grateful to our entire community during these challenging times. If the School of Law can help you or your firm in any way to weather the storm of this public health emergency, please let me know.
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Dear friends
Over the past few weeks, the UMKC School of Law has learned how to build and sustain our community from a distance. Faculty and staff are finding new ways to engage our students in a virtual environment. We are fortunate to have a variety of tools for the tasks and the staff with expertise to help us use these tools. Students are learning from video lectures, online discussion boards, zoom class meetings, social media platforms, and, yes, even old-fashioned email and phone calls. We are all learning to keep our sense of balance and focus on the things that really matter. For our third-year students, in particular, this has been an especially difficult challenge: they must manage the disappointment that commencement ceremonies and related graduation festivities will be postponed, along with the anxiety of waiting to learn how the pandemic will affect bar examinations and job prospects. They are not alone of course. All students are juggling their education and professional development with their need to manage geographic, familial, economic, and health disruptions. To help students to maintain this balance and insure equity, the faculty voted to adjust our grading standards this semester to a mandatory Credit/No-credit grading system, while still providing students with formative feedback on their learning. To help with their professional development and mental health, we have weekly tips on stress management and reminders that MOLAP continues to be available to them. To help with financial pressures, we have created a “Student First” emergency fund and I am pleased to announce that Access Lex has provided a $25,000 grant to jump-start that fund.
In the days and weeks ahead, there will be even more challenges to our mission of providing student-centered, community-engaged, and justice-driven education. Even after social isolation ends, I am confident that we will not simply go back to business as usual. We have learned too much. We have renewed appreciation for the critical role of place and community in education. We have also learned much about providing even more flexible, individualized education and professional development. We have mastered new tools and revisited accepted wisdom. Yet, some things will not change as we move through this crisis that has touched every aspect of our lives. We will continue to identify and solve problems in an uncertain world, and teach our students to do the same.
I hope that you are all safe and strong. Please know that your alma mater is here for you.
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Like so much else in our life these days, the School of Law ended its semester with a series of virtual events. Exams were all online and our faculty and staff moved mountains to master the technology to be able to provide fair and accessible exams for our students to wrap up their work. A Zoom meeting was the site for us to congratulate our students who passed the February bar (at a rate for first-time takers that exceeded the state average by 9.5% and with the highest number of first-time takers (23) for this mid-year exam. Once again, the UMKC Bar Prep Program’s active participants passed at a greater percentage. Our graduating students celebrated with a virtual commencement event. The online program featured advice from alumni, a wonderful speech by the graduate’s selection for Professor of the Year: Professor Judy Frame and reflections from our SBA President Greta Morina. I was pleased that the city pitched in to help with the celebration, lighting Union Station, the Nelson, and other city landmarks UMKC Blue for the event. This week we will be celebrating our Pro Bono Honors graduates with a special Zoom event, featuring the award of the Houdek Pro Bono Award and the Jay Dillingham Award. I am so proud of our students’ commitment to giving back to their community: this past academic year alone, 83 law students engaged in pro bono work at 32 different sites or agencies providing 8,499 hours of service to the community. This week also sees a new beginning: our 2020 Summer Start class, one of the largest ever, begins their work. All classes are being offered online and we will be learning a great deal together about how to build a community in a virtual environment.
During the summer start orientation, I will give my “Eat your Vegetables” speech (I believe this may be the 28th anniversary of my starting law students off with a discussion of why law school education and socialization is stressful, how they might react to that stress, and how to best manage their health and wellness through the process. The difference this year is that I will be delivering these remarks in a Zoom meeting. But if there was ever a time to pay attention to stress management and mental health and wellness, a pandemic is certainly the time. I recently gathered some of these thoughts together in a piece for the Bar Plan https://www.thebarplan.com/practice-positive-emotions/ One of my suggestions there was to practice gratitude. As the dean of a law school with an extraordinarily supportive, dedicated, and generous legal community, that is an easy practice for me. Thank you to all of you for the many ways you have helped to sustain your alma mater, even from a distance. I am grateful for your contributions to the Students First fund; your suggestions for grants and other opportunities to secure additional support; your offers of opportunities for meaningful experience for our students and graduates; your volunteering to help out in our clinics and programs; and your emails, calls and social media support on behalf of the School of Law. We will get through this challenging time together and emerge even more student-centered, community-connected, and justice-driven. Be well.
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
These past months, we have been reminded more than ever of how critical our work as lawyers is to achieving equal justice under law. The pandemic has reminded us that we cannot take for granted our access to food, health care, and other basic resources; we suddenly have had cause to pay closer attention to who it is that provides these services, the conditions under which they work, and the legal structures that frame these economies. As deaths from the pandemic disproportionately strike our elders and our communities of color, we are challenged to look closely at the conditions in our society that make this so and the ways in which law might correct these disparities. As we strive to protect the public health, we challenge our assumptions about privacy and individual autonomy. As we see and hear the unequal impact of policing practices, defender system funding, and sentencing processes, we ask how we can address injustice in our criminal justice system. As we watch public discourse about these topics devolve into personal attacks, we ask how we can build space for discourse grounded in our law school’s values: respect for people, for knowledge and ideas, and for justice. Our faculty and staff have been working together this summer to design programs to help insure these spaces and encourage this discourse. Our faculty have been exploring these questions in their scholarship. Our courses bring faculty and students together to examine these questions and design answers.
We know that you all are also engaged as the lawyers and leaders of this community to answer the critical calls for justice all around us. Let us know about your work. Share your ideas for how .
Peace,
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
Six months into a pandemic, the UMKC School of Law faculty, staff, and students are more resilient, skilled, and resourceful than ever. Over the summer, we welcomed our summer-start students to the law school and their first semester was 100% online. This past week, we welcomed 97 fall-start students, who joined our 44 spring and summer-start students to make one of the largest incoming classes we have had in some years. Alumni leaders from across the nation welcomed them in a Zoom networking session during orientation. The incoming credentials of these new students are impressive, with a median LSAT score of 153 and median undergrad GPA of 3.44. The majority of students are women (54%). Four percent are veterans, 22% are students of color and 33% are the first generation in their family to graduate from college. That diversity is part of our strength and we have been working hard to share that message with the students and the larger community. Thus far, nearly 1000 attorneys from across the state have completed our UMKC-CLE Elimination of Bias program featuring Professors Jamila Jefferson-Jones, Irma Russell, Mikah Thompson and myself.
We are back in the building, with classes being taught in the courtroom and student lounge at 25% room capacity. Everyone, including Harry Truman, is wearing masks to protect our community. Many of our classes remain online to give students choice and reduce congestion in the law building. The faculty have completed the campus Online Teaching Certification course and we have reworked courses that one might have thought impossible to take online, including skills courses, clinics and field placements. I am proud of the way our faculty and staff have met the challenge of modifying our delivery of legal education and connection to our community. But the point of that job has not changed: with your help, we are continuing to educate tomorrow’s legal leaders.
As we wait and hope for a resolution of this pandemic, I wish you all health, connection, and
Peace,
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
It has been a month of great losses and gains.
The law school joined in mourning the loss of the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg nationally and continue to share the sorrow of the members of our community who have lost family and friends. In a season of losses, we are reminded of the importance of purposeful work.
UMKC Law School's purposeful work is providing value and access to legal education. This past week we received some "report cards" on these efforts. Our Missouri bar results showed a first time pass rate of 85.1%. 100% of our graduates taking the Kansas and Oklahoma bar exam passed. We are celebrating these results with a swearing in ceremony this Friday in our Thompson Courtroom.
We had good news from Prelaw magazine as well. UMKC School of Law is listed as #7 on the list of schools that outperform their predictors on employment. Our family law program is one of only four schools to receive an A+ rating.
Providing value and access gives meaning in challenging times.
Peace,
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
This past month has seen some exciting new initiatives and partnerships develop at the School of Law. First, we are pleased to announce the launch of our Truman Fellows program. This program provides professional development opportunities for recent graduates in the midst of the COVID-19 recession while building on the law school’s strong commitment to public service. Our first cohort of Truman Fellows has been filled by three May 2020 graduates who are working in our clinics to provide assistance to businesses and individuals impacted by COVID 19. The program has been launched with a $25,000 grant from the Kansas City Regional Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund. Second, one of the Truman Fellows is working in the law school to complete a technology project to develop an online portal for applications for protective orders in Kansas. This program, sponsored by the Kansas Courts, is in progress and we will be excited to share the results in the new year. Third, the School of Law just learned that we have been awarded a grant of $308,000 by the Department of Justice to continue our partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project by hiring a clinical professor to operate a law school clinic focusing on postconviction testing of DNA evidence to establish innocence. These are only a few of the many ways that the School of Law is living its mission to be student centered, community connected, and justice driven. We welcome your partnership in this exciting work.
Peace,
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, this holiday devoted to gathering and gratitude will look very different for some of us. As we weigh the risks of gathering in the midst of a pandemic and forgo or limit some gathering, it can be easy to forgo the gratitude part of this holiday as well. Never has gratitude been more important, so let me take this opportunity then to say thank you to you all.
Thank you for the work you do each day. The excellence and professionalism you bring to your work raises the reputation of your alma mater right along with your own.
Thank you for helping to educate our students: as adjunct professors, guest lecturers in classes and on program panels, and graders in our bar preparation program. It hasn't been easy. We've had to learn how to connect to students across new technologies, or through physically distanced and masked classrooms. We are all grateful for your commitment to the future of our profession and our community.
Thank you for helping our students to transition into their professional career by providing mentorship and opportunities to these students as clerks, interns in our field placement program, post-graduate Truman Fellows, or new attorneys in your office. Your gift reaches far beyond the students you guide to build a legal community with an uncommon degree of civility and generosity.
Thank you for providing financial support. Because of you, we have been able to sustain students who are facing layoffs of family members, home schooling of children, unreliable technology or connectivity, along with all the other financial and personal stress that law school ordinarily presents. Your donation is a much-needed expression of confidence and caring and a critical message of commitment to the School of Law.
UMKC School of Law could not continue to provide excellent, innovative and connected teaching, research, and service without your gifts. So while I may not have the opportunity to gather with you this Thanksgiving, please know that I am enormously grateful to you all.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Barb
Barbara Glesner Fines
Dean and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law is approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions of the American Bar Association, 321, North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-988-6738.
