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KU School of Law announces Rice Scholars
School of Law introduces new faculty, law library staff member

KU School of Law announces Rice Scholars

Five accomplished incoming law students have been selected for the prestigious Rice Scholar Program, which awards full-tuition scholarships to law school students who are Kansas residents with outstanding academic records.

Faculty members select the Rice Scholars from the pool of first-year admitted students each year on the basis of the students’ undergraduate academic achievement, LSAT scores and record of leadership. The scholarship is renewable in the students’ second and third years of law school if they maintain a minimum grade point average.

The 2007-’08 Rice scholars are Anne Gepford of Leawood, Lauren M. Marino of Overland Park, John Francis Murphy of Prairie Village, Grant Reichert of Dresden and Meghan Elisabeth Walsh of Lawrence.

Trustees of the Ethel and Raymond F. Rice Foundation and former dean Martin Dickinson created the Rice Scholar Program in 1979 to honor the Rices and pay tribute to Raymond Rice’s dedication to scholarship, the legal profession and the School of Law. Since then, 145 outstanding Kansans have become Rice Scholars.

Following his graduation from the KU School of Law in 1908, Rice became known as one of the great corporate lawyers in the country, with clients in Chicago and New York. Closer to home, he became general counsel for the Kansas Electric Power Company, forerunner of Kansas Power and Light. A member of the KU law faculty from 1913 to 1926, Rice served on the Kansas Board of Law Examiners for 26 years and reviewed thousands of candidates for admission to practice. Throughout his life, Rice dedicated himself to the highest standards of legal profession and to public service.

School of Law introduces new faculty, law library staff member

Jelani F. Jefferson joined the faculty as an associate professor of law. She is a 2004 graduate of the Harvard Law School. She will teach Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Race and the Law.

Jefferson was most recently a Forrester Fellow at Tulane University Law School, where she taught legal research and writing. She clerked for Judge James L. Dennis, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Eldon E. Fallon, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.

Melanie D. Wilson also has joined the faculty as an associate professor of law. She will teach Criminal Procedure and Evidence. She is a magna cum laude 1990 graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law.

Wilson was most recently an associate professor at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta. She has extensive litigation experience and has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and the Middle District of Georgia. She spent five years as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Georgia.

Tammy J. Steinle has joined the KU School of Law’s Wheat Law Library as information technology and digital librarian. She has a master’s degree in library science, a master’s in public administration and a juris doctorate from the University of Missouri. Before joining the law library staff, Steinle was electronic resources librarian at the University of Missouri School of Law.

Visit the School of Law Web site for more information.