Judicial Branch

• Year: 2025
• Citation: Vol. 94 No. 2 Pg. 8
• Pages: 8

Judicial Branch No. 94 J. Kan. Bar Assn 2, 8 (2025) Kansas Bar Journal April, 2025

The Times, They Are A-Changing

By Sarah E. Warner, Chief Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals

A few weeks ago, I was wandering around a store in downtown Lawrence when Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" came wafting out of the speakers. I started chatting with the store clerk about what makes a song timeless (this was Lawrence, after all!). We agreed that a timeless song doesn't merely evoke an emotional response, though that may play a role. No — a truly great song grows with you, with verses that strike different chords as you move through life. When I was a teenager, I knew Dylan understood my plight when he sang, "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land." But on that icy Saturday in Lawrence, a different verse caught my attention:

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who that it's namin' For the loser now will be later to win 'Cause the times, they are a-changin'

And just like that, it struck me. Dylan was (perhaps unknowingly) writing about our state's appellate courts!

The Kansas appellate court system — and in particular the Kansas Court of Appeals — has undergone significant changes over the last decade. Those changes started with the advent of electronic filing in the fall of 2015 and have only gained momentum. Some differences are hard to miss: Judges Patrick McAnany, Joseph Pierron, Steve Leben, Michael Buser, and Anthony Powell have all retired from our court since 2019, and Judge Melissa Taylor Standridge joined the Kansas Supreme Court in 2020. In March, Judge Henry Green — the longest serving Court of Appeals judge in Kansas history — retired after 32 years on the appellate bench.

For those doing the math, these changes mean that we will soon welcome the seventh new judge to our 14-member court in just over six years. These changes also mean that since 2023, the Kansas Court of Appeals has become one of very few appellate courts across the country with a majority of women jurists. The times are indeed a-changing.

We've seen other changes as well. At the beginning of last year, Kevin Beckwith retired from his position as chief counsel after more than three decades in that role; Chelsey Langland has now taken up the mantle. And this past January, Judge Karen...