READY FOR A CHANGE About half of KU Law graduates each year take the private practice path. In 2006, another 18 percent ended up in the business sector, and 15 percent became government attorneys. Rounding out the field were judicial clerkships, public interest jobs and academic endeavors. What is more common than avoiding a law firm job right out of school is for graduates to practice for a few years and then realize they do not enjoy it, says Todd Rogers, assistant dean of career services. He and his staff counsel alumni who find themselves in that predicament. “We serve as a sounding board,” says Rogers, who himself left a Kansas City firm to take a job in the law school’s Office of Career Services. “Often that’s all they really need: someone who’s familiar with what lawyers do to listen to their plan.” Rogers and his staff also can recommend books designed for frustrated lawyers and connect graduates with other alumni working in nontraditional areas. Even after they have determined their next move, however, identity issues can stifle their confidence. Rogers calls it the Cocktail Party Dilemma: You go to a soiree and someone asks what you do. You say you’re a lawyer, and you immediately command respect.
Skip Granger, L'68, runs Starry Night Winery in California.
“I came to law school because I wanted to learn the thought pattern that goes along with law: find a problem and solve it. And that’s what I’ve used for my careers.” – Skip Granger, L’68
“You feed on that,” he says. “It makes you feel good.” It’s a little less of an ego boost when someone furrows their brow and asks, “What exactly is a director of career services?”
PERSONAL FULFILLMENT Greenlee admits that she has encountered undue prejudice regarding the capabilities of government attorneys. But throughout her career – which has wound from Kansas Legal Services to the offices of former Attorney General Bob Stephan and Insurance Commissioner-turned-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius – she has been driven by a sense that she is making a difference in people’s lives. “You have to lay down the label of ‘I’m a lawyer’ and just look at the work,” she says. “I’m an advocate through and through, and my legal skills support that. I don’t need to walk around with ‘I’m a lawyer’ pinned on my shirt. That’s not the most important part of my self-definition.”
Kathy Greenlee, L'88, serves as the secretary of the Kansas Department on Aging.
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SPRING 2008
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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAW