KU Law announces changes in leadership

The start of the 2019–20 academic year brings several administrative and staff changes at the University of Kansas School of Law.

“KU Law is fortunate to have such talented and experienced leaders,” said Stephen Mazza, dean and professor of law. “I am confident these individuals will advance the goals and initiatives of the law school.”

Administration

Uma Outka

Uma Outka was named as associate dean for faculty. Outka joined the KU Law faculty in 2011. She is a William R. Scott Research Professor and an affiliate faculty member of KU’s environmental studies program. Outka teaches courses on energy law and environmental law.

In this position, Outka will oversee course scheduling; chair the faculty hiring committee; organize faculty workshops and training; and aid in research and scholarship production.

Leah Terranova

Leah Terranova recently began the role of assistant dean for academic and student affairs. Terranova previously served as the law school’s director of career and student counseling services for seven years.

As an assistant dean, Terranova will oversee student life at the law school and serve as the primary contact with enrolled students. Terranova will create and implement programs and services designed to positively impact the satisfaction and retention of students. She will also coordinate the law school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Staff

Donovan Diaz

Donovan Diaz was hired to serve as the director of KU’s Master of Science in Homeland Security: Law and Policy program. Diaz will oversee and provide strategic direction for the program.

Previously, Diaz served as Counsel to Marine Corps Community Services, Marine Corps Installation Pacific – which is based in Okinawa, Japan. He also served as associate general counsel to the U.S. Marshal Service in Arlington, Virginia and as a member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Shawn Watts

Shawn Watts will serve as the school’s new director for the Tribal Law and Government Center. He joined the KU Law faculty in 2018 as a clinical associate professor. Watts teaches courses on lawyering skills and Native American peacemaking, and directs KU Law’s Tribal Judicial Support Clinic. Watts is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Watts succeeds Elizabeth Kronk Warner, who recently began a deanship at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

Stacey Blakeman

Stacey Blakeman recently started work as the school’s director of career services. As director, Blakeman will work with students on all aspects of career development, including recruitment programs and employment tracking.

Prior to this role, Blakeman was an immigration attorney at Treviño Law Office LC in Lawrence for 10 years. Blakeman graduated from KU Law in 2009.

Bryanna Hanschu

Bryanna Hanschu will fill the role of Assistant Director for Admissions. Hanschu will start in this position in early September. As assistant director, Hanschu will collaborate with the assistant dean in managing the law school admissions process; market and promote the law school by traveling extensively to local, regional and national recruiting events; and work with undergraduate prelaw advisors. 

Previously, Hanschu was an assistant county attorney for the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office. Hanschu graduated from KU Law in 2015.

Faculty

David Simon

David Simon has joined the KU Law faculty as a visiting assistant professor, teaching Torts, Criminal Law and Patent Law.

David recently completed a Ph.D. in law from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge International Scholar, and holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a J.D. from Chicago-Kent. His research focuses on intellectual property, public health and the law, and empirical legal studies.

Teaching, research awards

Ten faculty were selected to receive teaching and research awards for the 2019–20 academic year. Two faculty were elevated to the role of University Distinguished Professor, four faculty were awarded research professorships and four faculty were selected to receive teaching awards or fellowships.

The selections were made by the law school’s teaching award committee and the University Committee on Distinguished Professorships.

“The faculty selected for recognition based on their research enhance the school’s national reputation for scholarly productivity,” Mazza said. “I am equally proud of our faculty and their commitment to our students and the learning environment at KU Law.”

Distinguished Professors of Law

Research professorships

Teaching awards and fellowships

— By Ashley Golledge

Alumna joins KU Law as director of career services

Photo by Ashley Golledge

A 2009 KU Law graduate and former immigration attorney has joined KU Law’s Career Services Office as director of career services.

Stacey L. Blakeman started her new role in mid-August. As director, Blakeman will work with students on all aspects of career development, including recruitment programs and employment tracking.

Previously, Blakeman was an immigration attorney at Treviño Law Office LC in Lawrence for 10 years. Her practice focused on immigrant rights, advocacy, and education. She represented families and individuals on immigration matters including adjustment of status, family-based visas, waivers, naturalization, U-visas (relief for victims of crimes), deferred action for childhood arrivals, and relief from deportation.

Blakeman grew up in the Kansas City area. She attended Iowa State University and obtained bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish before attending KU Law and earning her J.D. in 2009.

“As a KU Law student, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my J.D. I managed to find a niche in the legal profession that was the perfect fit for me, and I loved my clients and the work I did,” Blakeman said. “I am excited to work with students and help them build careers that are fulfilling and help them reach their professional goals.”

She has been a Lawrence resident since 2006 and lives with her husband and two young children.

— By Ashley Golledge

Taking the lead: Meet KU Law’s student publication editors

Denise Dantzler, left, editor-in-chief of the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, and Joy Merklen, editor-in-chief of the Kansas Law Review.

Third-year law students Denise Dantzler and Joy Merklen are embracing their roles as editor-in-chief for each of the law school’s two student-edited publications. Merklen leads the Kansas Law Review, and Dantzler heads up the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Dantzler and Merklen learned about their selections this spring, and have been at work setting goals, reviewing write-on submissions and selecting staff editors for the 2019-20 academic year.

“I was elated to hear that the executive board selected me for the role, and I feel truly honored to lead this talented group,” Dantzler said.

Dantzler and Merklen spent their 2L years as staff editors on for their respective publications. They helped shape articles for publication and, as Merklen put it, became “intimately familiar with the world of the Bluebook.”

Goals for the year

Joy Merklen portrait
Joy Merklen

In their roles as editor-in-chief, both women said they want to build on the publications’ missions of advancing scholarship, while also pursuing new goals.

At the Law Review, Merklen wants to use digital tools to serve the publication’s mission of contributing to legal scholarship and providing an intellectual community for student members. That means expanding on the Kansas Law Review Blog, which was launched in August 2018. In addition to being the digital home for the Kansas Criminal Procedure Survey, the blog will provide timely content exploring other areas of the law, Merklen said.

The Journal will expand its own digital presence with the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy Online. Dantzler and her team are setting up a blog to house Journal articles and additional content. Like the Kansas Law Review Blog, it will complement the print publication.

Maintaining an inclusive culture at the Journal is also on Dantzler’s list of goals.

Denise Dantzler portrait
Denise Dantzler

“I want to create a positive community. Being on a publication is not easy. The work is tedious and frustrating. Knowing this, I am going to do my best this year to make sure the members of Volume 29 (of the Journal) have an overall positive experience,” Dantzler said.

Merklen also aims to make the Law Review office a positive place to be.

“The previous board had a very welcoming and inclusive culture that made the Law Review feel like home. That is something we are dedicated to maintaining and strengthening,” Merklen said.

Women in leadership

Both publications being led by women is an accomplishment for KU Law, Dantzler said, and it’s one she is grateful to be part of. Dantzler is the first woman of color to hold the top leadership position at the Journal since the publication’s founding in 1990.

“Joy Merklen is an intelligent, hardworking leader, and I know she will do an amazing job as editor in chief of the Kansas Law Review,” Dantzler said. “I also think it is wonderful that KU Law’s Student Bar Association President, Terra Brockman, is also a woman.”

Dantzler and Merklen are part of the KU Law Class of 2020, the first female-majority class in the school’s history. The Class of 2021 is also composed of a majority of female students. 

“I’m thrilled that both EICs for KU Law’s publications this year are women, and even more so that one of us is a woman of color. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it, ‘women belong in all places where decisions are being made’,” Merklen said.

“A diverse editorial board is important not only for the editorial process itself but also for the trajectory of the legal profession.”

Denise Dantzler: Editor-in-chief of the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy

Denise Dantzler, editor-in-chief of the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy
Denise Dantzler attends the 2019 Diversity in Law Banquet. Photo by Earl Richardson.

Before coming to KU Law, Dantzler studied chemistry as an undergraduate at MidAmerica Nazarene University. She played on the school’s soccer team and ran track. She also tutored her peers in chemistry and writing, and has continued as an academic counselor for the MidAmerica Nazarene soccer team as a law student.

At the law school, Dantzler is a member of the Dean’s Diversity Leadership Council and the Black Law Students Association, and works as a teaching assistant for lawyering skills classes. In the 2019-20 academic year, she will extern with the Hon. Julie Robinson, L’81, Chief Judge of the United States District Court of Kansas, through the school’s Judicial Field Placement Program.

This summer, Dantzler is working as a summer associate at Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, Missouri. She plans to practice as a patent attorney after graduating.

Joy Merklen: Editor-in-chief of the Kansas Law Review

Merklen is French and grew up in Bali, Indonesia. She came to Kansas by way of California, where she studied sociology as an undergraduate at University of California Berkeley. When she and her husband decided to start a family, that meant moving to his home state of Kansas – Merklen’s parents were across the world. Merklen and her husband live in Lawrence with their 2-year-old daughter, Sylvia.

Merklen works as a teaching assistant for the lawyering program and as a research assistant to Professor Richard Levy. In the coming year, she’ll serve on the Dean’s Diversity Leadership Council and as a Shook, Hardy & Bacon Scholar for civil procedure. She also plans to participate in the Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence and Post-Conviction Remedies.

This summer, she is also a summer associate at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. After graduating, Merklen plans to clerk for the Hon. Julie Robinson for two years, then return to Shook, Hardy & Bacon.

— By Margaret Hair

Student Spotlight: Aidan Graybill bolsters values of tribal community through internship

Aidan Graybill and Judge Charles H. Tripp

Second-year law student Aidan Graybill plans to utilize her legal education to practice tribal law. Graybill is a member of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, which is based in Kansas City, Kansas.

This summer, Graybill is an intern for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s tribal prosecutor in Mayetta, Kansas. The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is one of four federally recognized Indian tribes in Kansas, along with the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska; the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians in Kansas; and the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.

“There is no greater privilege than being able to interact with and work for the interests of a tribe, as it’s important to learn the values and objectives of the community directly from them to best represent them as a sovereign nation,” Graybill said.

Graybill is earning academic credit for her internship through the school’s Criminal Prosecution Field Placement Program.

“I think that working in a field placement is absolutely indispensable experience, especially when working with tribal communities,” Graybill said.

As a summer intern, Graybill helps the tribal prosecutor by researching legal matters, observing court cases, taking notes at hearings and drafting journal entries about court cases. Her favorite part of the internship is the opportunity to interact with the judge, court administration and attorneys in the courtroom.

“Everyone is always so kind. The Nation, with few extreme exceptions in criminal matters, always has the individual’s best interest at heart,” Graybill said. “They are always viewed as integral members of the community that have something to contribute to the Nation despite the hardships that landed them in the courtroom.”

Graybill said that working with a tribal government has given her a unique courtroom experience that she would not have gotten otherwise.  

“In order to work for a tribal nation as a prosecutor, but really in any capacity, you have to understand, respect, and be invested in what is most important to the community,” Graybill said. “If you don’t do that, you simply won’t be able to represent the community in the appropriate manner of furthering tribal sovereignty and self-determination.”

Graybill — who is originally from Scottsdale, Arizona — is a third-generation Jayhawk. Her grandfather, Harry Owen Ogg, graduated from KU in 1957. Her mother, Jolie Ogg Graybill, graduated in 1987.

After studying anthropology, biology and political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for her undergraduate studies, Graybill was drawn to KU Law for many reasons. She elected to pursue a legal degree in the sunflower state because of her familial ties to KU, the proximity to her Kansas City-based tribe and the law school’s Tribal Law and Government program.

At KU, Graybill is enrolled in a joint-degree program. In May 2021, Graybill will graduate with a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and a M.A. in Indigenous studies from KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also plans to earn the Tribal Law Certificate before she graduates.

 “KU offers an awesome program that allows you to earn both degrees in three years, so I figured I may as well do it!” Graybill said.

She is the president of the Mindfulness in Law Society, vice president of the Native American Law Students Association and treasurer for Women in Law. During her first year of law school, she also attended meetings for the American Constitution Society, Black Law Students Association, and OUTlaws and Allies.

Graybill will also serve on the Dean’s Diversity Leadership Council during the upcoming academic year.

“This is an opportunity which I am really grateful for,” Graybill said. “I hope we will make positive changes in student experiences within the law school and be able provide opportunities for prospective students as well.”

For the remainder of her time at Green Hall, Graybill looks forward to being involved with multiple student organizations, becoming more confident in her research and writing skills and gaining more legal experience through summer internships.

— By Ashley Golledge

This post is the eighth in a series highlighting the diverse internships and jobs KU Law students and recent graduates are engaged in over the summer of 2019 and early in their careers. Check out earlier posts from this series about David Biegel, Samantha Natera, Mohammad Hameed, Ellen Bertels, Delaney Hiegert, Jackson Ely and Claudia Chavarria.

I want you for public service

Recent graduate encourages law students to consider a legal career in public service

We go to law school, and, when we think about jobs, we think about law firms. Most of the OCIs are law firms. The 1L mixers are hosted by law firms. Law firms play a prominent role in our law school experience. Through three years of law school, and my first post-graduate job, I have worked exactly zero minutes for a law firm. Why? Because I felt another calling: public service. After 1L year, I interned with the U.S. District Court in Kansas. Next year found me with the Solicitor’s Division at the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Now, I am a Research Attorney on the Kansas Court of Appeals. I love public service because it gives me unique opportunities that a private law firm could not provide.

Working in public service gives you, quite obviously, the chance to serve the public. For me, that truly is a calling. So few people have the chance to attend law school. People helped me get to where I am, so I relish the opportunity to give back. We have been blessed with an amazing opportunity. Everyone should take the chance to serve to the people around them. Law firms do important work serving their clients’ interests, but public service often focuses on the bigger picture. Private law firms must focus on what their clients need now. In public service, there is always a similar immediate goal, but it is in the service of a bigger goal. 

Public service also offers a personal benefit, too. Law firms frequently have their summer associates work on projects that might play a small piece in the overall puzzle.  Public service cannot afford that. If you work in public service, you are going to work in public service. My jobs immediately threw me in to working on substantive matters where my work product was actually used. There was no time to waste, as work needed done. I can remember several of my friends talking about how a line from their memo ended up in their firm’s brief. I never got to say that. Instead, I could point at the brief itself and say, “That was my work.” That is rare for a law student. Because of these jobs, I graduated from KU with real world experience working as an attorney. That experience is priceless. I start my first “adult job” with a good idea of my skill-set and experience doing the work.

My time in public service was my favorite part of law school (except Law Review). It was more than a job. It was a calling. Public service gives you the chance to work for others and the opportunity to get a real taste of what a working attorney does. Can the pay, if there is any, compete with a private firm? Not even close. But the opportunities it provides are priceless. If you are looking for the best hands-on experience, public service is your route.

— Ryan Ott, L’19

Gaining experience through the Criminal Prosecution Field Placement

3L Eliza Kassebaum

During my first year of law school, I was convinced that I wanted to practice family law. One summer as an intern for a Kansas District Judge warned me off that career pathway real quick. Instead, I became fascinated with criminal prosecution. Following my judicial internship and subsequent interest in criminal prosecution, I structured my 2L schedule entirely around the desire to be a part of the Criminal Prosecution Field Placement Program.

I was fortunate enough to get a placement with the same county attorney that ignited my interest in criminal prosecution in the first place, and my field placement has been nothing short of enlightening. I have learned more within one month of my internship at the Franklin County Attorney’s office than I learned my entire 1L year.

There is something to be said in the advantage of learning by doing that makes any field placement an essential advantage in law school. Don’t misunderstand; it is because of what I learned in my brick and mortar classes that I continue to learn and succeed in my internship. Criminal Procedure and Trial Advocacy, for example, have been invaluable to my education in my internship.

It was such a joy to have a light bulb moment every time an arrest or evidentiary concern in my internship mirrored the same issues and cases we learned about in Criminal Procedure and Evidence. It helped to ground my lecture learning in something concrete and made me appreciate what I’m learning in law school all the more.

However, my internship has not only given me the opportunity to learn in a practice environment, it has also given me an experience I would not be able to have anywhere else. If I wanted to do something in court, I would only have to ask and the attorneys in my office would give me the opportunity to do with as much guidance as I would need.         

Bench trials have been a particularly informative experience just because there are so many working parts to consider in preparing before the trial and during the trial. Formulating targeted questions, preparing witnesses and constructing an appropriate sentence are all necessities towards a successful trial. In addition to bench trials, I’ve learned the necessity of a plea deal — when a deal is appropriate and when it isn’t.

Finally, I learned the importance of a team. In my very biased opinion, the Franklin County Attorney’s office is so successful at what they do because they work together and enjoy doing it. To be a part of a team — if only for a summer — that so obviously thrives in a positive work environment made possible by the attorneys and trial assistants that work there has been the joy of my law school career. 

Five-hundred words is not enough to describe how much this internship has meant to me. I will able to take this experience with me into my final year of law school and into my law career having become a better student and better future lawyer because of it.

—  Eliza Kassebaum is a 3L at the University of Kansas School of Law.