A Letter from the Chair

The Kansas Bar Association’s Board of Governors approved the creation and appointment of the Kansas Bar Association Political Action Committee (KSBAR PAC). The KSBAR Pac is an independent, bipartisan organization whose mission, among others, is to encourage lawyers to be active in the governmental affairs of the State of Kansas. The Bylaws of the KSBAR PAC requires half of the eight directors to be from the same political party. These directors are non-paid volunteer positions and they include; Tom Wright, Chair; (D-Topeka); Rachel Pirner (D-Wichita); Susan Berson (D-Prairie Village); and John Jurcyk, Secretary/Treasurer (D- Kansas City); Dick Honeyman, Vice-Chair (R-Wichita); Melissa Wangemann (R-Topeka); Dennis Jones (R-Lakin) and Dick Bond (R-Overland Park). There were more than forty qualified applicants for these eight positions.

The creation of the Political Action Committee for the Kansas Bar Association is an important part of carrying out our civic duty to use our knowledge of the law to reform the law when necessary. KPRC 1.1 reads “As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients; employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education.

A PAC is only a part of an effective legislative program. We need to now set about the harder task of locating those KBA members who truly care about the legislative process as it affects the practice of law and the administration of justice. We can then create a communication network between our members, KBA leadership and the legislature.

A political action committee allows individual contributors to make relatively small contributions to a single entity which can be commingled with other small contributions and greatly increase the ability of the entity to make contributions of significance. Initially contributions will likely be to the political action committees of both political parties.

If you have any questions about the KBA PAC, please feel free to contact any director of the PAC. If you would like to contribute to the KSBAR Pac, a contribution form can be found here for your consideration.