June15, 2000
Contact: Georgann Eglinski, School of Law, (785) 864-4550.
LAWRENCE--The University of Kansas School of Law has honored Judge Mary Beck Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit for her service to the legal profession and to the school with its 2000 Distinguished Alumna Award of the KU Law Society.
The award is given annually to an outstanding graduate of the law school.
Briscoe received the award June 9 during the KU law school annual luncheon in conjunction with the 2000 meeting of the Kansas Bar Association in Topeka. The presentation was made by Daniel Crabtree, 2000-2001 president of the KU Law Society.
In making the presentation, Crabtree noted that Briscoe's "work has contributed to the fairness of our laws, improved legal education and enhanced the quality of life in the community as a whole."
A native of the Council Grove area, Briscoe came to KU as an undergraduate, receiving a B.A. in German and political science in 1969. Upon graduation from the KU law school in 1973, she began her legal career as a lawyer-examiner with the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C., returning to Kansas the following year as an assistant U.S. attorney. In 1984 she was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals. She was named chief judge of the court in 1990. She received a master of law degree from the University of Virginia in 1990.
Briscoe was appointed to the 10th Circuit by President Clinton to fill a vacancy on the court created by the move to senior status of Kansan James Logan. She was sworn in as a member of the court June 16, 1995.
Service to the law school has been an important of part of Briscoe's life. She has frequently been a judge in the school's moot court program, most recently as a part of a panel that included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as well as Judge Deanell Tacha who sits with Briscoe on the 10th Circuit. She has given many hours of her time to law school activities and was the 1992-1993 president of the KU Law Society.