Supreme Court to present Justice Award to Linda Elrod

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court will present a Justice Award to Linda Elrod, Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita with Washburn University School of Law, for her significant contributions to the advancement of justice over the course of her career.

Award ceremony

The Supreme Court will meet in a special session to present the award to Elrod at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, in the Supreme Court courtroom in the Kansas Judicial Center. 

A livestream of the special session will be available at www.youtube.com/KansasSupremeCourt/streams.

Choosing Elrod for Justice Award

Chief Justice Marla Luckert said Elrod’s lasting and boundless impact on family law is well-known in Kansas and elsewhere.  

“I cannot overestimate the ripple effect that her work has had in this field,” Luckert said. “It extends across Kansas, across the nation, and even around the world.”  

In Luckert’s view, Elrod’s influence emanates from an immense passion to inspire change in family law to protect children. But it doesn’t tell her whole story.

“If you are involved in family or child custody law, you are affected by Linda’s work, but her influence is even greater than that,” Luckert said. “She also demonstrates leadership of the highest order while making time to mentor, inspire, and support students and attorneys throughout their careers.”  

It’s this kind of impact the Justice Award nominating committee seeks to highlight when it decides who should receive the award. 

Elrod thrilled, grateful

Elrod said the Justice Award is a “once-in-a-lifetime honor” that she’s thrilled and grateful to receive.

“I appreciate the recognition for a lifetime spent teaching students to be good lawyers and for trying to improve the legal system for children,” Elrod said. “I’ve tried to give children a voice and to make the system work better to protect them.” 

Elrod also appreciates she is the first woman to receive the Justice Award since its inception in 1989. She will be the 18th recipient in its 36-year history.   

As a young woman, lawyer, and professor, Elrod experienced many firsts. She was first in her 1972 law school class and the only woman. She was the first woman president of the Topeka Bar Association and the first woman editor of the Family Law Quarterly published by the American Bar Association Family Law Section. 

Elrod founded the family law certificate program at Washburn University School of Law in 1994. Since then, 130 students have earned the certificate, which requires 12 hours of specialized family law courses beyond a basic family law course and a research paper.  
 
“Some of my proudest moments are watching these students excel as judges and lawyers,” she said. “Some are on the Kansas Supreme Court, many are district court judges, and many are practicing family law or working with children.”  

Background and career

Elrod’s 50-year career as a Washburn University law professor is well-documented in a cover story for the summer 2024 issue of Washburn Lawyer. Her focus throughout those years was family law and protecting children. 

Although she has retired from teaching, she continues writing and advocating for children.  

In the early 1970s, before becoming a law school professor, she staffed the committee that created the Kansas Court of Appeals and consolidated all but municipal courts into a district court of general jurisdiction. 

She was the founder and first chair of the Kansas Bar Association’s family law section and wrote the Kansas Family Law Handbook in 1983, which continues to be updated annually with a different publisher. 

From 1984 to 2016 she served on the Governor’s Kansas Child Support Commission and the Kansas Supreme Court Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee. 

She’s also been a member of and has served in leadership roles for a number of national and international organizations. 

About the Justice Award

The Supreme Court presents the Justice Award to recognize individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the improvement of justice in Kansas. As a recipient, Elrod will receive a plaque and a $500 stipend, and her name will be added to the permanent list of recipients displayed outside the Supreme Court courtroom in the Judicial Center.

The award stipend comes from earnings on a $10,000 check awarded by the Foundation for the Improvement of Justice to the Supreme Court for its program to shorten the amount of time it takes to dispose of a case through Kansas courts. Kansas was the first state to establish specific time standards for each of five major case categories.

Any Kansan or Kansas organization is eligible to receive the Justice Award, except Supreme Court justices, their personal staff and members of the Justice Award Nominating Committee.