Letter from the Dean Dear KU Law Alumni: During my first academic year as dean of this great institution, I have taken some wonderful journeys around the state of Kansas and beyond to get to know the extended KU Law family. I have heard great stories about Fun Day at Professor Oldfather’s farm and co-ed watching on the steps of Green Hall in the shadow of the statue of Uncle Jimmy. More recent alumni have shared their memories of the traditional walk to “old Green” and moot court arguments in the beautifully renovated Frank L. Snell Court Room in “new” Green Hall. You have shared with me your gratitude to Martin Dickinson and Mike Davis for shaping your careers and to Chuck Briscoe, Dennis Prater and Jean Phillips for teaching you to be “real” lawyers. You have inquired after your favorite teachers. Bill Westerbeke and Keith Meyer are two of the most frequently mentioned. I spend most of my days, though, in Lawrence at the law school getting to know the talented, diverse and accomplished women and men who make up our current student body. Many cold afternoons have found me with my faculty colleagues Laura Hines and John Peck in the Rice Room talking with 25 especially gifted and accomplished young Kansans who are candidates for our most prestigious and competitive scholarship program, the Rice Scholars. Each day, whether talking with a successful lawyer-alumna, a current student or an anxious applicant for admission, I am reminded anew of the power of public legal education to change lives. And, in that, KU Law has succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation. In the upcoming months you should expect to hear more from your law school. The current third-year class started a new tradition of inviting our alumni to join them at the Barristers’ Ball. This year the state judiciary was particularly well represented at the ball by Justice Carol Beier and Judge Joe Pierron. We were also thrilled to welcome home dozens of law alumni for the Diversity in Law Banquet, including the evening’s speaker Robert Correales (L‘91), assistant professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd Law School. On May 4, I invited members of the Dean’s Club to join me in recognizing and honoring the recipients of the James Woods Green Medallion. With Kevin Kelly’s (L’89) arrival as our first director of outreach activities, we are continuously looking for opportunities to improve our communications with our alumni and friends. I hope to meet more of you in the next year in the course of my travels or here at new Green Hall on the beautiful campus of the University of Kansas. I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your financial support. In this time of reduced state support and tight budgets, your support determines whether your law school will be in the ranks of the nation’s great public law schools. Because of your generosity, we were able to provide some financial support to more than 250 of our students. Thirty aspiring litigators were able to participate in moot court competitions. Your gifts enabled our faculty to conduct research and attend workshops in their fields of expertise and brought notable speakers to our campus. Your unrestricted gifts permit us to respond to unanticipated opportunities or to address unexpected problems. We are grateful to those of you who give back to ensure that the generations who follow you will have the opportunity to receive a superior legal education at KU Law. In my short time here, I have come to know this as a special place. Its past is storied; its achievements great. The 6,400 living alumni who know KU Law as “my law school” are serving powerful clients in the most prosperous law firms in the country and dispossessed clients in over-extended legal aid offices in the poorest communities in America. Some of you answer to “Judge,” “Representative” or “Senator.” You run businesses and lead in your communities. Your many and varied achievements inspire our current students as they look forward to pursuing their own professional goals. With your help, we will strive to reach even greater heights in the years ahead.
Gail B. Agrawal Dean and Professor of Law