Eleven candidates are seeking to fill a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court that is coming open with the retirement of Justice Carol Beier.
The candidates will be screened by a nine-member panel made up of five lawyers elected by their peers and four nonlawyers appointed by the governor.
Women will now be in the majority on the committee after lawyers from the 3rd Congressional District recently elected Katie McClaflin to the panel.
McClaflin’s election, coupled with Gov. Laura Kelly’s appointment of former Unified Government Mayor Carol Marinovich, put five women on the panel.
The panel also includes Gloria Farha Flentje of Wichita, who was elected by lawyers in the 4th Congressional District; Linda Weis of Manhattan, who was appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback; and Frances Gorman Graves of Bartlett, who was appointed by Kelly.
The other members of the committee include lawyers Mikel Stout of Wichita, Terry Campbell of Lawrence and Gerald Schultz of Garden City. Former state Rep. Dennis Hedke also serves on the commission.
The panel will interview all of the candidates and recommend three to the governor to choose from in replacing Beier.
Here are the candidates, with background on each of the applicants. The interview schedule will be set Friday morning.
Victor J. Braden
Criminal litigation division, Kansas attorney general, Lawrence
Experience: Leads the Kansas attorney general’s criminal litigation division, which focuses on the prosecution of murderers, major illicit drug traffickers and child predators. A Blackhawk pilot, Braden has more than 38 years of military experience, most recently as the commanding general of the 35th Infantry Division at Fort Leavenworth. He is now retired from military service. Braden also served as the deputy commanding general of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. He is the recipient of the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and numerous other awards and decorations.
Education: Associate degree in political science from Pratt Community College; bachelor’s in business administration from Northwestern Oklahoma State University; master’s in public administration from the University of Kansas; and a law degree from Washburn University.
Christi L. Bright
Lawyer, Overland Park
Experience: A family law specialist who graduated from the University of Kansas Law School in 1995. She serves on the Board of Governors for the Kansas Bar Association as well as the Board of Trustees for the Kansas Bar Foundation. She’s also president of the Family Law Section of the Kansas Bar Association. Bright clerked for Stephen Nixon, a circuit court judge in Jackson County, Missouri. She has given lectures for continuing legal education credits in Kansas and Missouri on probate, employment and housing discrimination, and diversity.
Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and police science from California State University at Long Beach and a law degree from KU.
Meryl B. Carver-Allmond
Kansas capital appellate defender, Lawrence
Experience: Public defender who handles direct appeals of death penalty cases in the Kansas appellate courts. She has been the Kansas capital appellate defender since 2012. She researched and co-authored briefs in six death penalty cases and filed petitions for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in four of those cases. Carver-Allmond worked as the assistant Kansas appellate public defender from 2008 to July 2012. She researched and wrote almost 150 briefs in felony cases before the Kansas appellate courts
Education: Bachelor’s in justice studies from Pittsburg State in 2003. She earned a law degree from the University of Kansas Law School in 2005.
Kim W. Cudney
District judge, Greenleaf
Experience: Chief judge for the 12th Judicial District covering Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Republic and Washington counties. Appointed to the bench in 2006 by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. She was the first female judge in that district’s history. Cudney also served as Washington County attorney, first elected in 1996 and then reelected in 2000 and 2004. Earlier in her career, she worked as a research attorney for the Kansas Supreme Court and as a law clerk for a federal judge. She also joined a Kansas City law firm specializing in malpractice cases.
Education: Cudney graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in political Science, and then earned her law degree at Washburn University.
Dennis Depew
Deputy attorney general, Kansas attorney general, Neodesha
Experience: Leads the 12-attorney civil litigation division in the attorney general’s office, representing the state in tort claims, contractual matters and when a state official or agency is sued. He also manages the cases in which the office hires outside counsel and is an attorney/partner at Depew Law Firm. Depew was a finalist for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court last year.
Education: Bachelor’s of science in business administration and law degree from the University of Kansas.
Randall L. Hodgkinson
Lawyer, Topeka
Experience: Visiting assistant professor of law at Washburn University School of Law, Kansas Appellate Defender’s Office. He also formerly worked at the Law Offices of Stephen M. Lee in Kingman, Arizona; as a judicial research attorney at the Arizona Court of Appeals; and as a Sedgwick County public defender in Wichita. Hodgkinson is licensed to practice in Kansas, Missouri and Arizona, before the 9th and 10th circuits, and before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hodgkinson is a member of the Kansas Judicial Council Appellate Procedure Advisory Committee and co-chairs the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Tenth Circuit Amicus Committee.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in math and computer science from Wichita State University; law degree from Arizona State University.
Russell J. Keller
Lawyer, Fairway
Experience: Now serving as a law clerk for Judge Mary Beck Briscoe on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Served as assistant attorney general/unit leader for litigation at the Missouri attorney general’s office; attorney and partner for business, securities, antitrust and appellate litigation at Stinson LLP; attorney for business, antitrust and securities litigation at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago; and law clerk for U.S. District Judge John F. Grady in the Northern District of Illinois. He twice lost out in a bid for a seat on the state Supreme Court. He also was a finalist for a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals earlier this year.
Education: Bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in communication studies from Northwestern University; law degree from Northwestern.
Cheryl A. Rios, Topeka
Experience: A former nurse, Rios was appointed to the district court bench in Shawnee County in 2008. She previously served as an associate judge for the Topeka Municipal Court. After practicing critical care nursing for six years, the judge served as a staff attorney for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and as an adjunct professor at Washburn University. Rios is a former prosecutor for the Shawnee County district attorney’s office.
Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from St. Mary of the Plains College. She graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 1993.
Melissa T. Standridge
Court of Appeals judge, Leawood
Experience: Appeals court judge since 2008. Counsel for Magistrate Judge David Waxse in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. Worked for Shook, Hardy & Bacon. Before joining the law firm, she worked for two years as chambers counsel for Judge Elmo Hunter with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Last year, Standridge came up just short of making the list of three finalists recommended to the governor to replace Lee Johnson on the Supreme Court. Kansans for Life had opposed Standridge’s candidacy because she sided with an appeals court ruling that found the right to an abortion was enshrined in the state constitution.
Education: Bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Kansas; law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Kristen D. Wheeler
Lawyer, Wichita
Experience: Law clerk to U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten. She has worked with the Robinson Law Firm in Wichita, focusing on business advising and litigation, real estate advising and litigation, small-business representation, intellectual property protection, consumer protection, foreclosure defense, contracts and environmental law. She also was of counsel to Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy. Wheeler has sought seats on the Kansas Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court. She came up just a couple votes short of making the list of three candidates recommended to the governor to fill Lawton Nuss’ seat on the Supreme Court.
Education: Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary biology; law degree from Washburn University.
Marcia A. Wood
Lawyer, Wichita
Experience: Attorney and partner with the Martin, Pringle, Oliver, Wallace and Bauer law firm. Her practice “consists primarily of brief-writing, both at the trial and appellate levels,” according to the firm’s website. Wood provides research and writing in a variety of areas, including medical malpractice defense, product liability, and commercial and employment litigation. She also has experience in municipal and commercial finance. She recently lost out for a spot on the Kansas Court of Appeals that was held by Judge G. Joseph Pierron Jr.
Education: Bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Kansas.
