Kbf President

• Publication year: 2019
• Pages: 15

KBF President No. 88 J. Kan. Bar Assn 4, 15 (2019) Kansas Bar Journal April, 2019

Won't You Be My Fellow?

by Amy Fellows Cline

This month, I write to thank our current Fellows of the Kansas Bar Foundation for their continued support, and to encourage those of you who have not joined our ranks to consider doing so. The amount of Fellows pledges collected by the KBF took a dip in 2018, and we need to right the ship. The Fellows program is the primary source of funding for the Kansas Bar Foundation. For over 60 years, the KBF has funded opportunities for the citizens of Kansas through charitable and educational projects that foster the welfare, honor and integrity of the legal system by improving its accessibility, equality and uniformity, and by enhancing the public opinion of the role of lawyers in our society. Since 1984, with funding from Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, the KBF has awarded more than $4 million in grants to provide legal services to those who cannot afford them and for law-related educational programs. In 2019 alone, the KBF is awarding $400,000 to Kansas organizations and law students. We simply could not provide these opportunities without your Fellows pledges.

The funds provided by Fellows of the KBF are put to good use in a variety of ways, including:

Ourkansascourts.org

KBF Fellows pledges pay for the hosting costs and provide other financial support for the educational website, ourkan-sascourts.org, whose content was created by Trustees of the Kansas Bar Foundation. Thanks to your Fellows pledges, and the countless hours donated by Scott Hill, Rich Hayse, Todd Thompson, and several others, this website helps educate Kansas citizens about our legal system and, in particular, the role and structure of the court system in Kansas. This website not only explains the history and authority of our state court system, but it also describes the judicial selection processes used in Kansas and provides links to judicial evaluations and other civic educational resources.

Kansas Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program.

While the IOLTA grants themselves, which are awarded each year by the KBF, are funded by the interest collected from participating legal trust accounts, your Fellows pledges help defray the behind-the-scenes costs of this program. For example, your pledges help support the KBF's newly-created "Partners in Justice" program, in which participating financial institutions commit to...