Why You Should Consider Serving in the Kansas Legislature
| Publication year | 2017 |
| Pages | 09 |
Guest Editorial
By State Representative John Carmichael
Help Wanted: Exciting, challenging position in Topeka. Eighty-eight dollars and sixty-six cents per day pay (Saturdays and Sundays included) taxable, $142.00 per day subsistence (Saturdays and Sundays included) usually not taxable, State of Kansas health and accident coverage, along with KPERS retirement, disability and life insurance. Bar admission helpful, but not required. Apply now at the Secretary of State's office.
Serving in the Kansas Legislature is undoubtedly the best use I have ever made of my legal education. Representing clients is a worthwhile avocation, filled with challenges, times of great success and fulfillment, and moments of stress, frustration and despair. For me at least, none compare with going to work every day between January and May in the State Capitol. As lawyers, we often hear "bad facts make bad law." As a lawyer-legislator, bad facts help create good law. Whether it's a tax plan that favors some over others, a safety inspection law that looks like Swiss cheese, or a criminal statute that fails to completely expunge arrests of innocent citizens, the lawyer in the legislature can accomplish perhaps more in six months than the lawyer could accomplish in a lifetime of arguing cases in the appellate courts.
There are downsides to legislative service. Aside from the pay, living out of a suitcase for four to six months a year is not fun. Trying to "make rain" while not in the office to take phone calls is difficult. Calling friends, neighbors, family and other lawyers asking for money is distasteful. Saying stupid things in moments of frustration that are then quoted in the newspaper is not pleasant. Making occasional bad decisions with serious consequences is depressing.
Notwithstanding the downsides, it's a great legal job. The House Judiciary Committee is the best law firm of which I've ever been a member. The boss, Chairman Blaine Finch, encourages discussion, dissent, and guides the committee in its work much like a managing partner. We have experienced lawyers, as well as retired judges and lay magistrate judges, with a wealth and diversity of experience. Our staff, from the Revisor of Statutes and Legislative Research, are motivated, dedicated lawyers of great skill. We hold hearings virtually every day. The witnesses...
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