Law graduate accepts clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court
Governor appoints KU law alumnus as attorney general
Conference speaker champions scholarship on tribal law

Law graduate accepts clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court

A 2005 KU School of Law graduate has become the fifth KU law alumnus to be accepted for a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship.

Travis Lenkner, a Coats native, will clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy during the 2008-’09 term. Lenkner is the son of Edwin and Deana Allphin Lenkner, c’74.

Clerkships for the Supreme Court are highly sought after and extremely competitive.

“We are thrilled for Travis,” said Gail B. Agrawal, dean of the law school. “A Supreme Court clerkship is an unparalleled experience for a young lawyer. All of us in the KU law community feel honored by Justice Kennedy’s selection of Travis. We know he will do an outstanding job, just as he has done in everything else he has undertaken.”

As a student, Lenkner was editor-in-chief of the Kansas Law Review and president of the second-year class. He was a Raymond F. Rice Foundation Scholar, receiving a prestigious three-year full-tuition merit scholarship. Lenkner was the recipient of the Samuel Mellinger Scholarship, Leadership and Service Award, the law school’s highest award given at Commencement. He also received the Dean William L. Burdick Prize and the West Group Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award. He is a member of Order of the Coif, a scholastic honor society in legal education.

Following his graduation from KU, Lenkner was an associate with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, he accepted a clerkship with Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He received a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University in 2001.

Lenkner is the second KU alumnus to earn a clerkship this term. Jameson Jones, c'04, e'04, is a clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. Previous KU law school graduates who have received clerkships include:

— Heywood Davis, l’58, of Davis, Sands & Collins P.C. law firm in Kansas City, Mo., clerked for Justice Charles E. Whittaker.
— Stephen McAllister, l’88, professor of law and former KU law dean, clerked for Justices Clarence Thomas and Byron White.
— Ann Scarlett, l’98, assistant professor at St. Louis University School of Law, clerked for Thomas.
— David Stras, l’99, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, clerked for Thomas.

Governor appoints KU law alumnus as attorney general

A 1993 graduate of the KU School of Law has been appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the next attorney general of Kansas.

Douglas County District Judge Stephen Six replaced Paul Morrison, who left office in late January amid a sex and ethics scandal.

In accepting the post, Six said he was mindful of the responsibility and trust that the governor had placed in him, and he promised to “serve with integrity as an independent representative of the people of Kansas.”

Six, 42, will finish the three years left in Morrison’s term.

Gail B. Agrawal, dean of the law school, said everyone at KU law was excited by news of Six’s appointment.

“His legal alma mater is very proud of him, and we know that he will excel in this new role, as he did as a practicing lawyer and a judge,” Agrawal said. “He is a true role model for our current students.”

The Six family has indelible ties to the KU School of Law. Stephen Six is the son of retired Kansas Supreme Court Justice Fred Six, a 1956 graduate of the school and former Board of Governors president, and Lilian Six, who served as admissions director and placement director for the KU law school. Stephen Six’s wife, Betsy Brand Six, is a Lawyering instructor at the school.

His family expressed pride in his appointment.

“We are confident that he will succeed in the important task before him,” Fred Six said.

As a student, Stephen Six was a member of the Kansas Law Review. He then clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Deanell Tacha. He worked as an attorney at Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman in Kansas City, Mo., until 2005, when Sebelius appointed him to the bench. He is a former member of the law school’s Board of Governors.

Six and his wife live in Lawrence with their four children, ages 9, 8, 5 and 2.

Kansas residents are fortunate, Sebelius said, to have such a fair and objective leader for the state’s legal system.

“I’m confident that, in Judge Six, the people of Kansas have an attorney general dedicated to ensuring that the people’s law firm is led both effectively and responsibly with character and integrity,” she said.

Conference speaker champions scholarship on tribal law

Philip Frickey, c’75, grew up in a town of less than 2,000 people in northwest Kansas.

The sheriff didn’t spend a lot of time throwing people in jail. Residents had their own ways of dealing with habitual shoplifters or trouble-prone teenagers. They might follow the thief to discourage stealing or gently suggest to the teen’s parents that he join the Army.

Some call it rural justice. Most wouldn’t question its valuable role in keeping the peace in small communities.

Yet when it comes to tribal law—often similarly defined by the values and mores of a particular culture—federal courts exhibit a suspicion toward this “law in action” versus “law on the books” approach, Frickey said, especially as it pertains to tribal jurisdiction over nonmembers.

Frickey, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, offered explanations for and solutions to this discrepancy during his keynote address at the 12th annual Tribal Law & Government Conference, sponsored by the KU School of Law. Nearly 100 people attended the Feb. 1 event, which featured presentations by tribal attorneys, judges, CEOs and leading scholars. It’s the only recurring national conference to address tribal practices rather than federal law that dictate to tribes.

In his talk, titled “Local Knowledge, Tribal Institutions and Federal Indian Law,” Frickey, who has a bachelor’s in political science from KU, asserted that tribal institutions function well. It’s just that members of the dominant legal system aren’t familiar with them.

“It seems to me that federal Indian law … is impoverished by a lack of real understanding of tribal law and tribal institutions,” he said.

That dearth of knowledge, Frickey contended, exists partly because scholars have failed to provide an accurate empirical picture of tribal law. He argued that academics ought to pursue that line of work, even while noting that such studies could be intrusive into tribal affairs.

Frickey also suggested that tribes work through Congress to reverse the effects of 30 years worth of damaging U.S. Supreme Court decisions pertaining to tribal sovereignty.

In responding to Frickey’s address, panelist Aliza Organick, associate professor at the Washburn University School of Law, suggested that the federal courts’ suspicion of tribal law has as much to do with continued racism as it does with a general lack of understanding. She also argued that including federal Indian law in traditional legal education would help solve the problem.

Del Laverdure, chief legal counsel for the Crow Nation, welcomed scholarship on tribal legal practices but expressed skepticism about working through Congress to achieve change. Indians have been lobbying the hill for a long time, Laverdure said, and it’s almost always a defensive mechanism to keep the federal government from taking away more land or power.

Also addressed at the conference were issues of tribal property law and economic development.

“There are legal challenges that make economic development difficult on reservations, but tribes are overcoming those difficulties and are progressively pursuing diversity in business enterprises by looking to industry and investments outside of casinos,” said Professor Stacy Leeds, director of KU’s Tribal Law & Government Center.

In addition to Leeds, who helped organize the conference, other KU law faculty involved in the event were Angelique EagleWoman, visiting professor of law and indigenous nations studies at KU, who moderated a panel on creative avenues for tribal economic development; and Andrew Torrance, KU associate professor of law, who served as a panelist in that discussion.

Visit the School of Law Web site for more information.